Big Brother
by LovinLife4ever
Summary: Troy is new and he hates that everyone expects him to be like his brother, Tyler. Troy wants people to know that he has nothing in common with Tyler. So when he starts falling for his brother's ex, Sharpay Evans, things get kind of complicated. Troypay.
1. Goodbye, Tyler

**Yay! New story time! I hope you guys like. And FYI, I'm posting another chapter in like two seconds, so look out for that.**

It was just another day. At least that's what it seemed like. I was climbing through my boyfriend, Tyler's window. "Hey, Ty." I said, inviting myself into him messy room. "Happy summer."

"Happy summer Shar." Tyler smiled his signature smile. He was so adorable. Everything about him was just so perfect. I couldn't believe that of all of the people he could have chosen he chose me, I mean, he, being a junior, must have gotten a lot of crap for being tied down to sophomore for an entire year. But were really did click, I guess that's why he stuck around. "You know, we do have doors, in case you ever wanted to use one."

"But this way is so much more fun." I giggled, giving him a small kiss. "Next year is going to be the best! You'll be a senior! Can you believe it? I got into a few AP classes so we might get to see each other, and we can eat lunch-"

"Let's just focus on having a really great summer, okay Shar?" Tyler asked.

I frowned at him. "Why do you look so guilty?"

Tyler gave me a small smile and pulled a big envelope out of his desk. "I can't hide anything from you, can I?"

I gave him a funny look. "You're not being blackmailed… are you?"

Tyler's smile grew. He passed me the envelope. "It's from this boarding school in Seattle… I got a huge basketball scholarship for my senior year."

"Seattle?" Was all I could bring myself to say. "That's… really great. And about a billion miles away."

"Look, I know how much you wanted to spend next year together, but this is a great opportunity for me." He said, wrapping his arm around my waist, in a futile attempt to reassure me that everything was okay. "You're not mad… are you?" He asked worriedly.

I smiled in a somewhat successful attempt to comfort him. "No. I wouldn't be much of a girlfriend if I was, would I?" I said, trying extra hard to make sure that my words didn't sound hallow. "This really could be great for you." I said, though at this point, I was trying harder to convince myself than I was trying to make him feel better.

"And besides, we'll keep in touch." Tyler said, I had to admit, his voice was strangely soothing. "I promise I'll call you every day."

His plan of action wasn't really helping anything, to keep the conversation from going downhill, I decided to make him feel better. "Though I appreciate the thought, I'm not sure that having phone sex while you're in your dorm room wouldn't be such a great idea."

Tyler laughed. "Phone sex is phone sex, no matter where you are."

This got a laugh out of me too. Despite this whole situation, he was still the Tyler I knew and loved… yes, I said love. "I love you, Tyler Bolton."

"I love you too Sharpay Evans." He said, burying his face in my hair. After a moment of wallowing in the perfection of being able to hold Tyler, he looked up at me for now. "Let's have a really good summer."

I smiled reluctantly. "A really, really good summer."

XxXxX

_About a year and a half later_

"This totally sucks." Gabriella said. We were leaning against my mom's car. "I mean, just because your mom got remarried, and your step dad is a total ass doesn't mean you have to move away from Santa Barbara… not in the middle of senior year."

"Yeah…" I agreed. Kind of annoyed with her for reminding me.

"Hey, you're eighteen, can't you just move out and openly defy your parents?" Gabriella asked, a hint of excitement in her voice. "Ohmigod, that would be so hot."

"I don't have a well paying job, nor do I have a place to live. You do the math." I said, coming of more bitterly than I had intended.

"Oh." Gabriella said, hope fading from her eyes.

"And worse yet, I'm moving to Albuquerque to live with my dad." I said. I remembered back to when I was thirteen, to the nasty divorce my parents had. It was brutal. They finally agreed that my mom got custody of me and my dad got custody of my older brother, Tyler. You see, apparently Tyler was the dream child that every parent wanted. My dad loves everything about him, he plays basketball, he gets good grades, and he's never done anything really bad. He even has a girlfriend that both of my parents approve of, an honor role, straight-A getting, cute, well behaved, polite, and unbelievably wealthy, little blond. So naturally, everyone seemed to hate Gabriella, who had been my girlfriend for six months. My mom seemed to hate her more and more every day, a fact that Gabriella seemed to get some kind of thrill out of knowing. It was almost like a little game to her…

"Oh, I remember him. Captain of the football team, was it?" Gabriella asked with a scowl.

"Basketball." I said with a smile. You see, this was why I liked Gabriella. She frowned upon anything that was even remotely popular. So when she was new to the school, six months ago, instead of going for the jocks (who she could totally get if she wanted) she decided to go with the moody, anti-social, loner who did nothing but whine all the time. Me. Also because anytime I felt like complaining about my 'perfect' brother, she didn't mind. In return, I didn't mind that the entire school (as well as my family) thought of her as a total slut, just because she liked to wear the kind of clothes that you only saw girls wearing in rap videos, and because she was really in public displays of affection. And, well, maybe because she fell fast and hard for outcasts, but after one night, it would be over and she would go back to her boyfriend of six months. It was nothing personal against me, she just was really, really turned on by guys (and maybe, once in a while, girls) who didn't play by the rules, she liked me in a different, more long term way. I really didn't care all that much about it, I mean, I'd rather have a cheating girlfriend than have no one at all.

"Oh, right. The local cookie-cutter, teenage dreamboat who left Albuquerque with a trail of a million broken hearts behind him." Gabriella rolled her eyes.

"That would be the one." I said with a smile. She probably didn't realize that she had just given me a pep talk.

"Troy!" My dad called from his minivan. "Let's haul out." He said.

Though I was slightly annoyed with the fact that I was about to move in with a guy who drove a minivan and said stuff like 'let's haul out', I was more occupied with giving my girlfriend a proper goodbye. I put my arms around her waist and smiled down at her. "Promise not to hook up with some tortured artist with a drug addiction from the drama club the day after I leave?"

"I'll do my best." Gabriella said with a devious smile. "Promise not to fall for the typical small town girl next door who craves to be popular but is really beautiful on the inside?"

"That, I can promise you." I said, giving her one last kiss. "Bye Gabi."

Gabriella smiled. "Bye Troy… call me when you get to Albacarcas."

"Albuquerque." I corrected.

"Same difference." She said, giving me one last kiss (probably because my mom was watching, and she wanted my mom's most recent memory of me to be making out with a girl wearing an outfit that Britney Spears would have found offensive.

My dad honked the horn in is minivan. "Bye." I said, rushing into the front seat of the minivan, instantly plugging myself into my iPod and preparing myself for the hell that awaited me in Albuquerque...

**Can you imagine Troy with an older brother who was dating Sharpay? Can you imagine Gabriella as a rebellious nympho with a thing for bad boys? Can you imagine a world where Troy isn't the golden boy, but instead, the golden boy's kid brother? I can. Next chapter should be up in literally a few minutes, tell me if anything was confusing.**

**P.S. Tyler and Sharpay were totally kidding about the phone sex thing... or were they?**


	2. Hello, Troy

**I'm back. And for once, I have nothing to say. So enjoy...**

I woke up violently with a throbbing pain in my head as the car jerked to a stop

I woke up violently with a throbbing pain in my head as the car jerked to a stop. My iPod was still blaring in my ears, only adding to the headache. The light of day had completely disappeared, and all I wanted to do was to go inside and sleep and sleep and sleep until my dad got bored of me and let me move out. I know I promised Gabriella that I would call, but I just didn't feel like dealing with her at the moment. And truth be told, she was probably having way more fun with someone else at the moment…

So anyways, I was pretty much ready to just about ready to go inside and crash when my dad just had to say. "Go on inside, I set you up with Tyler's old room. You have a bed and a desk, we'll move the rest of your things into the room tomorrow. It is going to be so great having you back in the house again Ty- I mean Troy." Okay, first of all, he stuck me in Tyler's old room? Seriously, I distinctly remember having my own room in this house before I moved away with my mom. What did they do to it? Turn it into a work out room or something? Probably. And then, almost calling me Tyler? That just sucked. And instead of being merciful and just stopping there, he just had to add this. "I almost forgot, Tyler called yesterday and he said he could fly out and visit some time really soon! Isn't that great? You must be so excited, but don't get too excited, you need to get some sleep tonight, tomorrow is a school day."

I just moved here, and in about eight hours, I would have to go to an entirely new school and having my older brother there to witness it all. Fun. My plan of doing nothing but sleeping was seeming better and better every second…

XxXxX

I was running on four hours of sleep and a Starbucks coffee. Thanks to my dad's psychotic four-thirty AM wake up calls. I'll have to call and thank Tyler for convincing my dad that every teenager could put up with that. The Starbucks was kind of helping but it didn't change the fact that I was at a new school with people I had never met. Not the most fun experience. Especially in this particular school, where people didn't look at me as just the new kid, but the new kid who looked kind of like Tyler Bolton. He had left the damn school two years ago, but he had left a legacy behind him. And apparently, as soon as people started figuring out that I was Tyler's little brother, I would have to be a part of that legacy. Not my idea of a good senior year.

I saw a bunch of guys with basketballs standing at the front steps of the schools. One of the guys gave me a weird look. And separated from the rest of the group. I was mentally preparing myself to hear something along the lines of 'hey, are you related to Tyler Bolton?' but instead, he said. "Troy? Is that seriously you?"

I was confused. But then it all came back to me, my best friend from junior high. I squinted a little bit, to make sure that this wasn't some kind of a prank. "Chad?"

"Holy shit! It is you!" Chad laughed. "What happened to the gap in your teeth?"

"What happened to your hair?" I asked.

"Since when were you coming back to East High?" Chad said, now walking me into the building.

"Since my mom got remarried." I said simply. "So what's going on here? Are you guys still crying over the loss of my brother?"

"Well… Sharpay still might be, no one really knows. But the rest of us were just starting to let go, but now tat you're here people will have another reason to talk about him again."

"Sharpay?" I asked, remembering how frequently I heard my brother talk about her.

"Yeah, she was dating him before he left. It's been two years and the girl still hasn't dated someone for over two months. It's really too bad, she's pretty damn hot." Chad laughed. "Do me a favor and don't tell my girlfriend I said that."

"You have a girlfriend?" I asked with a laugh. I still remembered Chad back when he had first discovered girls. He sure loved them, but they would avoid him at all costs. Back then, girls wouldn't be caught dead even talking to him, let alone dating him.

"Don't sound so surprised. Sometime between when you left and now, The Chad gained some skill." Chad said, wrapping his arms around a girl's waist.

"Judging by the fact that you still refer to yourself as The Chad, you didn't gain that much skill." I said.

"Don't even bother." Said the girl. "He still thinks that he's Casanova."

"This is Taylor." Chad said. "And Taylor, this is Troy Bolton."

"Bolton…" Taylor said, pondering the word. "Any relation to-"

"Tyler Bolton?" I cut her off, knowing full well what she was going to say. "Yeah, he's my brother."

Taylor's face lit up. "Wow, I knew that Tyler had a brother but… wow! Are you going out for the team?"

She didn't have to tell me what team she was talking about. "No. That's Tyler's thing. Not mine." I tried my hardest to not make it sound monotonous, but I'm pretty sure that I still sounded annoyed.

"What are you talking about?" Chad asked. "You have to try out!"

"He's not obligated to do anything that he doesn't want to do." Taylor said, making me extremely thankful that Chad had finally gotten a girlfriend. Then all of a sudden, her eyes went huge. "Wait, does Sharpay know about this?"

"That I'm not trying out for the basketball team?" I asked.

"No, that you're here. At East High." She said hastily.

"Why would it matter to her?" I asked. "I know she dated my brother and all, but really would she really care that much that I was here?"

"You seriously don't know how serious Sharpay and Tyler were, do you?" Taylor asked.

"Well… I know they were together for an entire year before Tyler left for boarding school." I said.

Taylor rolled her eyes at my lack of knowledge on my brother's love life. "They were they reigning king and queen of East High, even though she was just a sophomore and he was just a junior. Everybody thought that they were going to make it through high school together and get married the second Sharpay turned eighteen. So it was a pretty big deal to her when Tyler left."

"I still don't get why it would matter to her that I'm here though." I said. "It's not like I'm some sort of clone of my brother or something. It really shouldn't be that big of a deal."

"If you say so." Taylor said with a shrug.

That's when it happened. At first it wasn't that big of a deal, a blond was walking down the hall alone, and she was, apparently the only one whose eyes weren't glued on me because as she was walking by, she bumped into me and dropped the binder and text book she was holding. "Sorry, I'm such a klutz." She said with a quick apologetic smile, she hastily picked up her books then stood up.

"No, it was probably my fault for standing in the middle of the hall." I said, and weirdly, I wasn't pissed.

"Seriously, it was my fault this happens to me, like, every other-" She stopped. She gave me a weird look. "Ty?" She asked. And before I could clarify and tell her that I was Tyler's brother and not Tyler himself, her lips were pressed against mine.

It was a shock. Not that I did enjoy it, it was just that I wasn't supposed to. I mean, one of my brother's groupies was kissing me just because she thought I was him. How shallow is that? And yet, I couldn't bring myself to let go. After a good fifteen seconds of kissing, I lightly pushed her away (which, when you think about it, isn't that bad, considering that I could have waited until she stopped kissing me, which was at least five seconds after I decided to end it). That's when I realized that she wasn't one of my brother's groupies.

"You must be Sharpay." I said. And that's when the look of horror appeared on her face, either she just realized that I wasn't my brother or I was just a really bad kisser. "I'm actually Tyler Bolton's brother, Troy. I'm guessing that you thought I was Tyler so that whole kiss thing probably wasn't meant for me."

"Ohmigod." Were the words that came out of her mouth, her cheeks flushed bright red and she looked like she was about to pass out.

"Um… it's okay, I won't tell Tyler and you don't have to expect to hear about this ever again." I said. But before I could convey the message, Sharpay made a beeline for the girl's room.

"Now you see what I'm talking about." Taylor (who had seen the whole thing) said with a smirk she smirked as the warning bell rang. I just stood there, in the middle of the hall, as Chad and Taylor walked away to homeroom. I didn't care that I was late, I could pull the new kid card if I needed to. I was just so confused as to what just happened.

The whole thing was really weird, I mean, if someone told me three days ago that my brother's old girlfriend would kiss me, thinking that I was him, first I would laugh, then I would feel like throwing up, then I would think of something sharp to say that would completely burst her bubble. Now, I was mainly confused, and concerned on whether or not she was okay. But the one thing that I would never have expected in my whole life was that my lips were still tingling…

**OOH! Troy and Sharpay, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. That wasn't the most romantic thing that could have happened, don't you think? I mean, she ran off after. But still, it was a kiss. Don't worry, she doesn't hate him, and he doesn't hate her. Next chapter should be up soon. Bye for now - LL4E**


	3. Meet Sharpay

**Yo, what's up? Okay, so I don't think I ever fully explained this story, first of all, it came about while I was watching Gossip Girl (don't judge me... I'm an addict) and I thought about how Chace Crawford **(**or Nate on the show) looked like and older hotter (in my twisted opinion) more dangerous looking Troy, after thinking about this for a while I concluded that he didn't look like Troy, but rather, someone who would be related to Troy and BAM! A story was born. So then I started the story and loved it. I was going to post the first chapter it a lot earlier than I did, but the day I went to post, a Troyella with the same guy-likes-girl-who-dated-older-brother concept, so I decided to wait to post (I just hate it when that happens, it makes me feel so unoriginal, even if it is just a coincidence). Since you guys really don't need to know most of this stuff I'm going to say two important things before I completely lose my train of thought: **

**a) Ryan won't be playing much of a part in theis story, so far, he'll only be in one chapter (I think I'm getting to used to not having Ryan there... this is my third story without him, which sucks because I really love his character, next time I start a story, someone remind me to give Ryan a major role in it)**

**b) It'll be told in mostly Troy's point of view instead of 50/50 or mostly Sharpay like I always do... so if Troy starts to sound feminine (like noticing designer labels) let me know.**

**Enjoy...**

* * *

I was in the middle of third hour, the longest, most boring class I think I've ever sat through

I was in the middle of seventh hour, the longest, most boring class I think I've ever sat through. They seriously shouldn't have let the drama club teacher, Ms. Darbus, teach high school students about Classic English Literature. Especially when the drama club teacher doesn't understand how much the people in the class don't care about Classic English Literature. Right about now, she was ranting about how Shakespeare's work was meant to be seen and not read, and that in order for us to get the full effect, we needed to witness the play being portrayed by actors who were committed to the art of the theater, but we couldn't, because the school was cutting down on the budget for all of the truly art oriented classes so that the cheerleaders could get springier pom-poms. I was sitting there, wondering whether I was supposed to be taking noted on her rant or not.

She was in the middle of explaining how paper can not clearly portray emotions as well as people can, when the door opened and in stepped Sharpay Evans. Ms. Darbus (who didn't seem to like being interrupted while she was ranting), immediately took notice. "Ms. Evans, if I may ask, why are you disrupting my class?"

Sharpay smiled. "My group in AP World History finished our project on comparing the use animals in Greek and Egyptian lore and mythology finished early. So Mr. Andrews let us have a free period that I decided to spend helping Ms. Klein in the front office, apparently, a new kid named Troy Bolton is needed. Is he here?"

"And may I ask why he is needed?" Ms. Darbus asked, crossing her arms skeptically.

"They put him in ninth grade remedial algebra for eighth hour by mistake, they need to talk to him about his math program at his old school to be sure that he'll be adequately prepared for our math program." Sharpay lied flawlessly.

"Mr. Bolton, please follow Ms. Evans, I can assure you that you are in good hands." She said.

I got up and followed Sharpay out the door. As soon as were a good distance away from the classroom, I turned to Sharpay. "What was that?"

"That was me helping you escape from Classic English Literature." Sharpay said without hesitation. "I took it last semester, you really shouldn't have to go through that on your first day."

"So you helped me ditch?" I asked, though, admittedly, I was thankful, it was still kind of weird that a random girl was helping me ditch. I couldn't help but think that she was kind of psychotic. "Wait… you're just helping me ditch, right? Not like, some kind of hazing ritual or something?"

"Yeah, the rest of the guys are waiting down the hall, what do you think would be more painful duct taping you to the boy's locker room wall, or hang you from the flagpole outside?" Sharpay asked sarcastically, rolling her eyes at me. "I just thought about what it must be like transferring to a new school in the middle of senior year. And if there's one thing that you really shouldn't be exposed to on your first day would be the cafeteria food, but I can't really do anything about that on such short notice, now can I? So I the second worst thing would be Darbus' Classic English class. Spoiler alert: it's the same rant every single day. You'll have it completely memorized by the end of the year."

"Well that pretty much sucks." I said. "But if you don't mind me asking, where are you taking me?"

"The science gardens." She said, either not noticing or not caring about me being completely freaked out. "I don't think that we've been formally introduced, I'm Sharpay."

"I'm Troy." I said, walking faster, trying to keep up with her.

"Yeah, I know." She said stopping briefly to look me over. "Funny, I pictured you dorkier."

I scowled. "I can only imagine how my brother described me."

"He only said that you were quiet." She said. "And that sometimes you just annoy the hell out of him."

"That's it?" I was sure that he would have thrown in that I went through a major musical theater phase and would watch the Phantom of the Opera on DVD every day.

"Well, we never really talked about you that much." Sharpay said. "He only really brought you up when I almost went to your house for Thanksgiving two years ago."

"You were going to come to Santa Barbara with my brother for Thanksgiving? To meet the family?" I asked.

"Well, yeah." Sharpay said. "My mom looks at Thanksgiving as yet another excuse to take her boyfriend to Aspen, so Tyler invited me to go with him. Unfortunately, my dad decided that he wanted me to meet his girlfriend. She wasn't that bad, I mean, she got me a really nice collectable Barbie doll that I sold on ebay for like, three hundred dollars. But she didn't seem to get that there was only an eight year age difference between us."

"My mom's boyfriend got me a GI Joe when I was fifteen." I said, somehow feeling that it was relevant.

"It wasn't all bad though… I got to hang out with my twin brother, Ryan for a week." Sharpay said.

"You have a twin?" I asked. "Why isn't he here at East High?"

Sharpay looked a bit uneasy. "My parents went through a really bad divorce… my dad got custody of Ryan and my mom got custody of me, so of course, my mom stayed in New Mexico and my dad moved to Boston with Ryan. We email and stuff but we don't see each other that often." Sharpay paused, I could tell that she was trying to stop herself from showing too much emotion. "It really is stupid, you know? It's like Ryan and I are just pawns, in their game."

"That sucks." I said. Feeling that I should have had something more to say, I just blurted out the first thing that popped into my mind. "The week before I left Santa Barbara, my mom kept on reminding me that my dad chose to have custody of Tyler, and not me back when I was thirteen. It was like even though she didn't care enough to let me live with her and her new husband, she still didn't want me to like living with my dad."

Sharpay nodded understandingly, I guess I had somehow managed to say the right thing, because she looked up and smiled at me. "You really aren't that annoying, Troy."

"Try telling that to Tyler." I said.

Sharpay looked at me. "Look, I know that you think your older brother is some totally stereotypical jock who spends two hours doing his hair and flirts with girls while twirling a basketball on his finger. And you probably thought of me as his no-brained trophy-chick who spends three hours a day on her hair, and spends all of her personal time texting and shoe shopping. But trust me, it really isn't like that." And in a weird way, I did trust her. And then I found myself wondering how my brother got this girl. I mean, she wasn't totally horrible. All this time, I'd pictured this twofaced, boring, dumb blonde, but she was so much better than that. "We're here." She said, pointing to the door that was labeled Science Gardens.

"What exactly are the science gardens?" I asked.

Sharpay opened the door and going up the steps. "It's pretty much a greenhouse. Science Gardens just sounds so much more romantic, don't you think? It sounds all pretty to be getting away from it all in the science gardens when you're really just hiding in the greenhouse." Sharpay laughed. "Tyler used to take me up here all the time."

"Tyler used to ditch class?" I asked, sort of surprised that the child that every parent wanted could be capable of this.

"Well when a sophomore is dating a junior, finding ways to hang out between classes while abiding by school rules can jet complicated. It's easier to just break them. We never ditched important stuff or anything, just, whenever we both could." Sharpay smiled as if she was remembering something. "We never got caught."

"Do you still come up here?" I asked.

"Sometimes, not as much as I did with Tyler though." She turned to me. "Hey, you're not allergic to any of this stuff or anything, right? Because if you're going to break out into hives or something, I think I'd like to know ahead of time."

"I'm not allergic." I said, remembering back to all of those times when I tried to take Gabriella for walks in the park and trips to the beach. "Gabriella was allergic to everything natural." I muttered to myself.

Sharpay must have had super-human hearing because she seemed to hear what I had said. "Is that the girlfriend?" She asked.

I nodded. "Long distance."

"Wow." Sharpay said. "I admire you for being able to do that. It must suck."

"It does." I said dryly. Okay, I know that this sounds really weird but this wasn't completely honest. It was weird, I hated not having her there to talk to, but it was sort of nice to not have to think twice before I said anything that could possibly piss Gabriella off (which was about half of everything that I wanted to say). Don't get me wrong, I _did_ miss her, it's just that, I didn't miss her as much as I missed having there. But I've got to say, this was filling the void quite nicely. "Are you seeing anyone now?" I asked.

Sharpay had been looking at a few of the plants that she seemed to find interesting. She shook her head absently. "Not currently."

I had to ask. I just had to. But I couldn't, could I? I couldn't stop myself. "Have you been out with anyone… you know… since Tyler left?"

She looked up. I could tell that I had hit a sore spot. "Of course I have, nothing really serious, but still."

"Sorry." I said.

"No." She looked at me with a small smile. "Don't be." After a short but awkward silence Sharpay spoke again. "So tell me more about Gabriella." She said with a smile, somehow not noticing that this was the last subject in the world that I would want to talk about. "Is she pretty?" She asked in a sing-song voice that I couldn't help but smile at.

"Yeah." I said. "She's beautiful."

"Do ya love her?" She asked, using the same sing-song voice.

I hesitated for a second. The short answer would be, well, no. But that usually didn't fly with girls. "I don't know."

"Oh come on, that's not an answer." Sharpay giggled. "Yes or no?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, all of the above?"

Sharpay rolled her eyes at me. "How long have you guys been going out?"

"Six months." I answered.

"If you've been with her for six months, then why don't you know if you love her or not?" She asked. All of a sudden, she seemed to snap out of whatever she was doing. "I am so sorry, I have no right to be asking about that."

"No… it's okay." I said. It was weird, like something about her made me want to tell her everything I was thinking (and not just the edited version, like I did with Gabriella). "I know I love her… I'm just not sure that it's in the way that I'm supposed to." I paused. "Does that even make sense?"

"Yeah, it does." Sharpay said, knowing well enough to drop the subject. "So are you going out for the basketball team?"

"Nope." I answered plainly. "That's my brother's thing, not mine." I'd been saying that all day. Anyone who showed any interest in me was only interested in asking if I was going out for the basketball team. That includes teachers (except for Darbus, who had only been interested in telling me that youth was becoming enslaved to the cell phone and are now nothing but mere robots, who can only download and upload and whatnot, but that doesn't count).

Instead of being all 'how can you not try out?' like I had expected, Sharpay just nodded and said this: "It must suck being compared to him all the time, huh?" which totally threw me.

"What?" I asked. "No speech on how I need to carry on the Bolton family legacy?"

Sharpay shrugged. "Everybody has something that they totally love and will willingly spend their time doing, for Tyler it was basketball. That doesn't mean that you have to do it too just because you're related to him."

"What's your thing?" I asked.

"Haven't really figured that out yet." Sharpay smiled. "Which really sucks when you're a high school senior. I'm really into writing… but that would be kind of hard to break into."

"I like photography." I said (probably sounding like a total idiot, but still). "I've never worked with a Nikon or a Leica or anything, but I really do love it. And I don't think that photography classes would really help when the only experience I have is with Kodak and Polaroid."

Sharpay smiled. She was just about to say something when the bell rang. "That's our cue to leave." She said. "It was fun hanging out with you Troy. You're not what I expected."

"Neither were you." I said with a smile.

Before I went down the stairs, I could fell her grab me by the arm and pull me back. "Okay, I know that you're probably really bored of this so I'm only going to ask you once and I swear I'll never bring it up again." She said in a hushed tone. "How is Tyler doing?"

I had expected this, but after talking to Sharpay, I really didn't know what to say. "He's good, he's still at NYU on that basketball scholarship. He doesn't call home a lot." I said.

"Cool." Sharpay said, letting me go and heading towards the stairs. "See you later, Troy."

"Yeah… see you later." I said. Okay, confession time. I'd sort of left out the that Tyler would be visiting soon. I know I should have told her. I mean, it would matter to her more than anybody else. But for some reason, I didn't want her to think about Tyler. And I hoped with all my heart that Tyler wasn't still thinking about her.

* * *

**So how was it? I liked this chapter, but that's just me. I really liked how shy I made Troy, I mean, he's not hiding-in-the-corner shy, but he's not all Troy Bolton arrogant like I've grown to expect. Do you think it was a good choice to make Troy into photography? I'm going to have to remind myselfto follow up on that one, but I always imagined Sharpay as a writer, because she always seemed like a dreamer to me, and personally, I think dreamers make the best writers. Okay, I'll try to update soon, bye for now- LL4E  
**


	4. Forget Gabriella

**Hey guys, what's up? I reallydon't have much to say (other than the fact that I'm in complete denial about summer vacation coming to an end so soon) so go ahead and read...**

* * *

I was on my way home after the best first day of school ever

I was on my way home after the best first day of school ever. Despite the countless people asking me about the basketball team, and my dad checking up on me at random times throughout the day, and the cafeteria food, and the fact that half my teachers kept on calling me Tyler. Getting to hang out with Sharpay Evans in the science gardens for just a half an hour totally made up for that. And I guess I was starting to sound like a love sick idiot, but I knew I wasn't. I mean, I had Gabriella (who I still hadn't gotten around to calling yet). And she didn't even see me in that way.

I was at my locker, filling my bag with the day's homework when I felt a slap on my back. "Still thinking about that secret meeting between you and Sharpay?"

"I was not." I lied. I had been an idiot and told Chad everything… well, everything except all of the stuff that we talked about. "And it wasn't exactly a secret meeting. She just showed some me some pity because it was my first day and she knew my brother."

"Whatever you say man." Chad said, obviously not believing me.

I slammed my locker door closed and walked with Chad toward the door. You see, during a spare moment in gym class, I'd managed to get my dad to let me take the bus with Chad instead of riding home with him in his minivan, which would have socially crippled me for the rest of the year… maybe longer. "But really, man, she's way cooler than I would have expected."

Chad shrugged. "I never said she wasn't." We stepped onto the bus. "It's just that they're constantly overshadowed by a few of her other, more noticeable _assets_. If you know what I'm saying."

Part of me was all '_hell_ yeah' which I'll admit was extremely shallow of me, but I honestly couldn't help it. I'd be lying if I said that I had no clue what Chad was talking about. But in a weird, twisted way, I sort of wanted Chad to shut the hell up. I mean, he wasn't allowed to look at her in that way, especially when there was so much more to her than just… well… you know…

"Aw, shit man! You're thinking about her again aren't you?" Chad asked. "Dude, Sharpay Evans isn't going to get with anybody. Not until she's in her late thirties and is instructed by her therapist to take more chances. She's still hung up on your brother, so maybe it's just easier to look at her in a strictly physical aspect." Okay… I was about to go all incredible Hulk on Chad's ass. Yes, I realize that there was a lot of truth in what Chad said to me, and that he was technically my only real friend at East High (well… him and Sharpay, but I wasn't really sure if she counted), and if I screwed this up I'd be virtually alone, but I was seriously about to kill him.

But before I could make some extremely offensive remark about how he shouldn't talk because it took him eighteen years to find a girlfriend, there was a knock at the window. "Open up Bolton!" I pulled down the bus window to see Sharpay standing next to the bus. "Okay, I realize that the bus is going to start moving any second, but this is really last minute so I'm going to make this quick. My brother was in Malibu for this thing with his school's drama club, my dad says that he can fly out to Albuquerque just for tonight, and I'm going to the airport to pick him up now. The point is that I'm getting a few of Ryan's old friends over to my house for a gathering, if you want you can come." I was silent.

"Oh… wow." This wasn't what I had expected at all. I figured that the whole 'taking me under her wing' thing was just a one time deal. But here she was, standing by my bus, asking me over to her house.

"Okay, I realize that a party in an empty mansion with a bunch of high school kids and alcohol really isn't your scene… but Chad can come too. Plus, I really wouldn't hate it if you decided to come." She said with a sincere smile. She looked down at her phone and then back up at me. "Damn, I'm late. Look, my address should be floating around somewhere in your house, tell your dad that you're in my study group or sneak out or whatever… just, it would be really great if you could be there." With that she took off quickly to her car.

I turned away from the window and looked at Chad. "Did you see that?" I asked smugly.

"Yeah, man." Chad said, smiling huge. "You could totally see down her shirt from this angle.

"Shut up, Chad." I said. I had bigger things to worry about than how perverted Chad was being at the moment. I was going to Sharpay's house. And I was pretty damn excited. But that didn't mean anything at all… I mean, it was just a friend inviting a friend to a party, and yet, this was the most excited I had ever been to be invited to a party… ever.

xXxXx

Sharpay's POV

"… So then dad's all 'son, this is Kirsten, she's a very special woman.' And Kirsten, who is like, three years older than me looks at me and goes, 'Hi, I'm Kirsten, I'm your father's special friend, you'll be seeing a lot of me. I just love little children.'" I laughed out loud and patted my brother on the back. The swarm of people around laughed too. "So then I go, 'I've seen you before' and she gets all flustered, asking if I saw her in some toothpaste commercial she did, and I'm all 'no, in my freshman year, you were that senior who got that teacher fired for all of those extra credit help sessions Friday night at his apartment' and she shuts right up. Dad looked like he could have killed me."

I giggled and placed my hand on his shoulder. "I'm going to get something to drink, you want anything."

"Surprise me." Ryan said, before going back to his story.

I walked away from the crowd and found my way to the refreshment stand. I picked up two red bulls and walked away. It was so great to have Ryan back, it really sucked that he had to leave early the next day though. We really never got to see each other anymore. I was on my way back into the crowd when I saw a familiar face. "Troy!" I said with a smile.

"Hey Sharpay." Troy said with a smile.

"I didn't think you'd make it." I said with a smile. "I thought all of this was way too superficial and pretentious for you."

"I thought, I'd make an exception… just this once for you." I said with a smirk.

"I'm flattered." I grinned at him. "Get a drink, talk to people, I have to give this to my brother…" I held up the can of red bull. "You know what? Come with me. I'll introduce you."

Troy shook his head. "I wouldn't know what to say."

"Oh come on, don't make me drag you." I said playfully grabbing his hand. I pulled him towards where my brother was standing, the crowd had cleared.

"Hey, Ry. This is Troy, the new kid." I said, handing Ryan his drink.

"Hi Troy, I'm Sharpay's brother, Ryan." Ryan said, before turning to me. "Red bull? Shar, I was kind of hoping for something slightly more… how do I put this… alcoholic?"

"Hey dumbass! Could you be any more rude?" I asked, punching him in the arm. "And besides, you really don't want to have a hang over on an airplane. Trust me on that one."

"Oh yeah! Spring break Cancun… good times." Ryan said. "Good thing I was there or you might have gotten yourself on a girls gone wild tape."

"Um, you were the one who almost got yourself sold into prostitution." I said, crossing my arms at my younger brother (by twenty two minutes, but still).

"I honestly thought that they were a traveling circus." Ryan said. "I mean, one of them was bearded. And they were using some weird secret hooker language. It would have been confusing even if I wasn't completely wasted." Ryan wrinkled his nose at the memory, making me laugh.

"You guys went on spring break?" Troy asked.

"Last year, we went to visit some friends in Cancun." Ryan laughed.

"And there were a bunch of college kids doing the whole spring break thing." I giggled, taking a sip of my red bull.

"We figured since couldn't avoid it, we might as well enjoy it."

"And boy did we enjoy it."

"Cheers to that."

Troy laughed. "The closest I've ever been to spring break was when I was ten and my parents took me on a cruise ship, there were just a bunch of senior citizens telling me how much I remind them of their grandchildren."

"Ouch." Ryan said. "Look on the bright side, at least you weren't old enough to get set up with their grandchildren."

"Very true." Troy laughed. "I think I see Chad. Really nice to meet you Chad."

"Right back atcha." Ryan said with a nod.

"See you later, Sharpay." Troy said to me with a smile.

"Bye Troy." I said with a giggle.

As soon as he left, Ryan turned to me. "So what's the story on the man candy?"

"He's Tyler's little brother." I said. "Why? Do you want me to ask him out for you?"

"Haha, very funny Shar." Ryan got a excited look on his face. "Ooooh! Does Tyler know that you're hooking up with his little brother?"

"There is no hooking! For your information, I just met him today!" I nudged Ryan in the ribs. "And even if I was hooking up with Troy, why would Tyler need to know?"

Ryan looked at me as if I was clinically insane. "Um… maybe because you two were sort of kind of epic?"

"Just because we were epic doesn't mean that he still controls my life." I rolled my eyes.

"True, but you're still in looooooove with him." Ryan said in a sing-song voice.

"How can you say that? You've only been here for a day." I muttered.

"And so far, no boyfriend, no flirting, and you haven't even mentioned Johnny Depp. Hell! You don't even have a crush! Not that Troy hasn't been trying hard enough."

"Okay, now you're talking crazy."

"Oh come on Shar, you're not _that_ blind, are you?"

"You know what? Whatever." I rolled my eyes, dismissing the idea.

"Whatever you say." Ryan said. "Listen, I have to go to sleep now, my flight leaves at three."

"Oh come on! You can sleep on the flight, all these people are here for you!" I pouted.

"I'm just the excuse for the party, you're the life of it. Have a good time!" Ryan said.

"When the party is over, I'll wake you up." I said.

"Deal, we can braid our hair and paint each other's toe nails." Ryan said, in a mocking voice.

"And talk about what a whore Jessica Phillips is?"

"You know it."

"I love you Ry." I said, giving Ryan a quick hug.

"Love you too Shar." He returned my hug before going inside.

As soon as Ryan went inside, I turned and saw Troy. "He's leaving tomorrow, huh?" He asked.

"Yeah." I answered.

"That sucks."

"Yeah it does."

"Sharpay?"

"Yes?"

"Would you like to dance?"

I turned to Troy. "You know what? Sure."

xXxXx

Troy's POV

I was in my room, after Sharpay's party. It. Was. AWSOME. I'd gotten home without any problem, my dad totally ate up the study group excuse, and he even cut me some slack on curfew because he was happy that I had been socializing. Sharpay and I had danced for a few songs… including one slow one. And before I left she gave me a tiny kiss on the lips… not even a kiss… a peck. She gave me a peck on the lips. It was one of those things that you aren't supposed to look into. A nice, friendly, platonic peck that totally shook the foundation of my world.

I was sitting in my room, wallowing in aftershocks of that tiny peck when my cell phone rang. I looked at the caller ID… Gabriella. "Hello?" I said into the phone.

"Hey, it's me." She said. "I just got home."

"Why does that not surprise me?" I asked.

"Because you know me all to well." Gabriella giggled.

"So what's up?" I asked.

"Do I need an excuse to call you?"

"No… but this is the first time we've talked… how are things back in Santa Barbara?"

"Good."

"And how are all of those tortured artists from the drama club?"

"Especially good." She answered deviously.

"Somehow, I find that amusing." I laughed.

There was a short silence on the other end of the phone. "Look, Troy, I know I mess around a lot-"

"It's fine."

"No it's not!" Gabriella took a deep breath. "I'm a horrible girlfriend."

"No, you're not."

"Yeas I am."

"No you're not!"

"YES I AM!"

"Look Gabriella… you're a great girlfriend."

"Then why didn't you call me sooner?"

I paused. There was no right answer to that question. "I was busy."

"No you weren't."

"It was late by the time I reached Albuquerque, today was my first day. Sounds pretty busy to me."

"But that's not what stopped you from calling."

"How would you know that?"

"Because I know you!" Gabriella shouted into the phone.

I didn't say anything. I couldn't find anything to say.

"Look, I know that I don't show it, but I really care about you, way more than I care about those tortured artists from the drama club."

I paused. "I know that."

"But I don't tell you that enough."

"I have to go." I said quietly.

"Bye Troy… I'll miss you." Gabriella said weakly.

"Bye." I said, before hanging up the phone.

Then all of a sudden I felt horrible. I hoped that it was because I had just been neglecting my girlfriend. But I knew that wasn't it. It was because I was starting to have feelings for someone else.

* * *

**Uh-oh. I smell trouble with Troy and Gabriella. I kind of feel bad for making Troy like Sharpay when he's the one guy that Gabriella really likes (and not just for a hook up). I guess I'm kind of demented in that way, I hate Troy and Gabriella together, but I really can't imagine her not wanting him. She's such a hopeless romantic and she thinks that Troy is her knight in shining armor... only he never is (at least not in the stories I read). I think that's the longest I've ever spent talking about Gabriella in an author's note. I 've gotta go... bye for now -LL4E**


	5. Welcome Back, Tyler

**Dun Dun Dun. The moment we've all been waiting for (or hoped would never happen) is here... read and figure it out. Plus, it's sort of in the Chapter title... I hope I didn't totally give it away (that was sarcastic, by the way). Now read, or face my wrath.  
**

* * *

Usually, realizing that you have romantic feelings for someone other than your girlfriend would have been enough to make me co

Usually, realizing that you have romantic feelings for someone other than your girlfriend would have been enough to make me completely uneasy for the rest of the night. But apparently , fate disagreed. Because at that moment, my dad ran into the room with a phone pressed against his shoulder and a big goofy smile plastered across his face.

"Troy! I'm so glad that you're awake! Not that I usually allow staying up this late on school nights-" He paused pressing his ear back against the phone. "Ah ha… yes… Troy and I will be there… no, of course Troy needs to be there, he's your brother." And that's when it hit me.

This had Tyler written all over it. My dad would probably turn Tyler's arrival into a national holiday. "Dad… do I really need to be there when Tyler gets here?"

"How did you figure out that your brother was on the phone?" My dad frowned. "You ruined the surprise."

"Yeah, whatever dad. Do I really need to be there?" I asked, honestly, I was tired. And I didn't even want to have to think about Tyler at the moment.

"Your brother is coming to visit." My father almost looked insulted.

"Don't you want to be the first on to hug him first the airport?"

"Not particularly." I answered bluntly.

"Well, whether you want to admit it or not, I know you miss your brother." My dad said with a smile. "And on Saturday, you'll be right there to welcome him off the plane."

Okay I seriously almost fell off my bed on that one "SATURDAY!?" I yelled.

"Yeah… isn't it exciting?" He asked, his big old grin returning to his face. "I'm going to go to sleep now, you have a big day ahead of you tomorrow." He smiled and closed my door, completely unaware that he had just ruined my already crappy night.

xXxXx

Three cups of coffee. Correction… three cups of crappy airport coffee. That was what I was running on. I woke up at four in the morning because my dad was in the living room, blasting Johnny Cash music. Get this: He was making a banner. I'm not joking. It had 'Welcome Back Tyler' written across in Red paint lined with silver glitter. There was a giant family portrait that we took when I was eleven and Tyler was twelve. We were wearing matching outfits with sweater vests. At ten, my dad had me get into the mini van and go to the airport with him. And apparently, not keeping Tyler waiting (on the off chance that the plane actually came in on time) was so important that we couldn't even stop at a McDonald's drive through for and Egg McMuffin. So that lands me here, drinking crappy yet expensive airport coffee, waiting for my brother.

"Can you believe that Tyler is coming back to visit?" My dad asked excitedly… maybe a little too excitedly. "I mean, I thought the program he was taking would be much to hectic for him to take time off. But you know Tyler, family is a top priority to that kid."

"I remember when I was eight this one time, Tyler sat on me for like, three hours straight while he was playing Super Mario Brothers." I said with a laugh.

"And ambitious too… did you know that he played that video game for twenty-six hours straight just to beat a level?" My dad said, pretty much unaware of the point of my story.

"Whatever you say dad…" I said, realizing that it was probably best to just ignore him all together.

"It's him!" My dad yelled, swiftly walking away from me and toward a figure in a crowd, pulling a suitcase with a duffel bag across his shoulder. He slapped Tyler on the back and began pulling him towards the doors. "Son! It's so great to see you, let me take one of those bags! You look exhausted. Your brother really missed you. You look thin, what have you been eating at the university? Let's go home and get some real food into you. I'm making all your favorites for lunch."

"Nice to see you too, dad." Tyler said, then turned towards me and nodded. "Hey bro, what happened to the gap between your two front teeth?"

"I'm sorry, but did you just call me bro?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, would you rather have me call you sis? Because I can assure you, either works for me." Tyler snapped back.

"Boys! No fighting on Tyler's first day back!" Dad intervened, stepping between us. "Now let's get home and have some lunch."

xXxXx

"Sorry Ty, but I set Troy up in your room." My dad called as Tyler carried his suitcase upstairs. "You can take the spare room across the hall from your old one."

"I'll be in my room." I said, preparing to lock myself in my room. I was almost there until Tyler wedged his hand in the door, stopping me from closing it.

"You mean my room." Tyler said. "You're just staying there until graduation."

"What do you want?" I asked, rolling my eyes at my brother.

"Look little brother, I really don't care about all of the fun stories about the trials and tribulations of a dorky high school senior. There is pretty much only one topic out of the possible millions that I'm sure you can come up with that I actually care about, so I'm going cut straight to the chase." Tyler took a deep breath. "Sharpay Evans. Do you know her?"

"No." I answered quickly, realizing that I might have sounded slightly suspicious, I decided to elaborate. "I-I mean, I know _of_ her, I guess. But not personally or anything… why would you even care?"

Tyler narrowed his eyes at me. "Just as I suspected, you have proven to be completely useless to me in every conceivable way." Tyler pulled the door open and walking towards his own room. "Oh by the way, while I met up with mom in Santa Barbara I met up with that little girlfriend of yours. How the hell did you get that piece of ass to notice you?"

"For once in your life, can you please just butt out Tyler?" I asked.

Tyler laughed "Ooh… trouble in paradise I see, let me guess, she found someone better and now she either dumped your sorry ass or is still stringing you along?"

"The exact opposite actually." I muttered.

"Huh?"

"Nothing." I said, closing the door happy to finally getting away from Tyler.

xXxXx

"Okay, honestly, are there any good stores in Albuquerque?" I asked Chad, who was linked at the hip to Taylor.

"Yeah… you just have to know where to look." Taylor answered for Chad.

"And where would that be?" I asked.

"Here." Chad said. "Wherever here is... no one ever comes down here."

Taylor turned to me. "I need to get some reading material and there is this seriously amazing bookstore a block away from here. Do you think you can survive on your own for a few seconds?"

"Yeah… whatever." I said as Chad and Taylor walked off. Honestly, I was a little distracted. Because there was a coffee shop on front of me that caught my attention.

"We'll be back in a few." Taylor said.

I walked into Geneva's, the coffee shop. Walking straight up to the preoccupied blonde at the counter. "Hi, welcome to Geneva's." She said absently. "What can I… Troy." She said finally looking up.

"Hi Sharpay." I smiled at her. "I never thought of you as the barista type."

"Gen." Sharpay turned around. "I'm taking five." As soon as Sharpay got approval from her boss, she pulled off her apron and stepped around the counter. "I didn't think I'd see anyone from East High around here."

"Well, I really didn't think that I'd see you here." I said, sliding into a booth across from Sharpay. "So why work here? I mean, it's not like you need the money or anything."

"I don't know." Sharpay said with a shrug. "To get away, I guess. Does that make any sense at all?"

"It makes a lot of sense." I said.

"I mean, after a while you get fed up with all of the Britneys and Paiges and Ambers from the country club." Sharpay said with a slight laugh. "How pathetic is this? I mean the poor little rich girl story is getting kind of old, isn't it?"

"I'm fine with it as long as you're not begging for my sympathy." I said with a shrug.

"You're not completely freaked out… are you?" She asked.

"Not completely." I said. "At least now I know something about you."

"That's not fair." Sharpay pouted. "Now I have to hear the story behind one of the many skeletons in your closet."

"Okay…" I said pretending to think it over. "From ages ten through twelve I was a musical junkie. I'm talking watching the Phantom of the Opera every single day. Memorizing the words to all of the songs in the Wizard of Oz. The whole shebang."

"And to prove it, you're the last person in the entire universe who uses the word shebang**.**" Sharpay laughed. "Well, now I guess we're even."

"Not completely even, you told me about a secret part time job. I told you about a two year obsession. I think you owe me." I teased.

"Okay fine, what do you want to know?" She rolled her eyes.

"Favorite movie."

"Forest Gump. Hands Down." Sharpay said without even thinking. "Though The Sixth Sense did make a close second."

"Favorite Disney Movie."

"Tie between Bambi and Pirates of the Caribbean."

"Bambi?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "And pirates? I always thought of you as more of a Cinderella type girl."

"Oh please. Bambi was totally the forest Gump of all Disney Movies." She giggled. "And Pirates had Johnny Depp with guy-liner."

"You're into guy-liner?" I asked.

"Don't look so surprised." Sharpay shrugged.

"Do you think I could pull off guy-liner?" I asked.

"No way." Sharpay said, now giggling uncontrollably.

"Okay, okay." I said, putting myself back together. "Favorite Disney _Princess_ movie."

"Tough one." Sharpay said, pondering the question. "Does Alice from Alice in Wonderland count?"

"Nope."

"What about Tinkerbelle?"

"Nope."

"In that case, Ariel from the Little Mermaid." Sharpay answered.

"Of all of the princess, why do you pick the one who is half fish?" I asked.

"Because she actually took action instead of waiting for someone to come along and solve all of her problems for her." Sharpay said. "It was actually kind of an obsession when I was a kid. I had all of the merchandise."

"Sharpay! Five minutes is up!" The person at the counter called.

Sharpay looked at me serious. "Can you do me a favor and not tell anybody about this?" She asked. "It wouldn't be half as fun if this weren't a secret."

"I swear on my iPod." I said with a smile.

Sharpay's smile became huge. "Oh my god! I totally love you right now!"

I smiled sheepishly. "Thanks. I totally love you right now too… I guess." At that moment, I was trying to mentally erase the 'totally' and 'right now' part of that statement.

"Thank you so much." She said, sliding out of the booth. "Come by anytime, you have free coffee for life." She gave me a hug and dashed behind the counter and pulled her apron back on. "Starting now."

"Watch ot, because I'm going to hold you to that." I said.

"Hey… not to pry or anything but have you heard anything from Tyler?" Sharpay asked, pouring me a cup of coffee.

I grabbed the cup and smiled at Sharpay. "No."

* * *

**LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE! I'm personally ashamed of Troy (which is weird, because I'm the one who made him do it, but still). How does he sleep at night? I mean, poor Sharpay. I had to add in the Little Mermaid think because for the first eight years of my life I was in love with that movie. And my friends and I swear on our iPods all the time (only if one of us doesn't come through, we don't actually do anything to their iPod, because that would just be inhumane). In this story, I'm trying not to make Tyler mean... just perpetually annoyed with Troy. He's nice to Sharpay though... really nice ;) And yeah, that means that Sharpay will find out that Tyler is back in town, probably sooner than you think (hint hint). So I'll see you later.**

**But I will leave you with a semi spoiler-ish quote from next chapter, at some point, Troy will ask Sharpay (and I quote) "On a scale of one to ten, one being a female repellent and ten being a piece of totally hunky man candy, what am I?" What will the answer be? I'd give him a 7.5, because I've seen him dancing in get your head in the game, so now I can't look at him romantically (thought I have to give him props, I couldn't even watch it with a straight face, he managed to do it without, spontaneously bursting out into laughter). I have this weird thing about choreoraphed dancing, though I do think that Mark from so you think you can dance is adorable. Tell me what you guys would give him (I predict many, many tens). I'll stop ranting now. Byez - LL4E**


	6. Surprise, Sharpay!

**Yay! I can finally add in some Troy/Sharpay friendship stuff. They make such good friends. At least, I think so. Anyways I think this chapter has a few semi-cute Troypay moments. And a secret is revealed, none of you will ever be able to guess what it is (I say this with sarcasm, because I'm pretty sure that we all knew that this moment would come eventually I mean, um, Troy kind of mentions it... a lot) I hope you like. **

"So what are you doing after school?" Sharpay asked me, leaning against the locker next to mine.

I smirked. "Whatever you're doing."

"Good." She said. "Because my mom is on this really weird self conscious mid-life crisis thing where all she does is underfeed herself and overfeed me. I can't be in the house for two seconds without her shoving twinkies down my throat."

"That sucks." I said.

"And I've been spending so much time at the coffee shop lately that they've practically had to kick me out." Sharpay rolled her eyes. "So I was hoping that I could just hang at your place."

"No." I answered, all too quickly. I'd been keeping this up for three days. Convincing Sharpay that Tyler wasn't in town, I mean. It took some pretty crazy on-the-spot lying, but I made it this long without her finding out. And I wasn't planning on letting that end now. But I've got to say, I didn't really mind having to think so much about excuses why Sharpay couldn't go anywhere near my house, because we always had somewhere else to hang out. "My dad decided that he's going to spend all day moving furniture around and blast Johnny Cash music at full volume. Having twinkies shoved down your throat would probably be funner."

Sharpay raised an eyebrow at me. "You know, I'm starting to think that your hiding something."

"What could I possibly have to hide?" I asked, hoping that I didn't sound as nervous seriously was.

Sharpay shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe you're part of some big illegal diamond heist. Maybe you're holding a bunch of people hostage in your basement. Maybe you're secretly a nudist-"

"That's stupid Shar." I said with a laugh.

"Is it?" Sharpay asked, purposely trying to sound overdramatic. "Why else wouldn't you want me to come over after school and watch movies at your place?"

"Even if you could come over, how would we decide what movie to watch?" I asked.

Sharpay giggled. "How can you not love Donnie Darko?"

"I don't have anything against Donnie Darko." I rolled my eyes, we had this conversation many tomes before. "I just think that Band Camp is better."

Sharpay scoffed at me. "Dannie Darko isn't even isn't even my favorite movie."

"Don't even start talking about The Breakfast Club." I laughed.

"Don't even bother denying it. The Breakfast Club was the best movie ever, and you know it." Sharpay said, in an extremely serious tone.

"The breakfast Club was an eighties movie with Molly Ringwald where kids got detention on a Saturday." I said. "Band Camp is so much better."

"Oh please, other than the line 'this one time at band camp', the movie was seriously just raunchy crap." She crossed her arms.

"Hilarious raunchy crap." I said. "And says the girl whose defending the movie where a teenager is being haunted by an big imaginary bunny."

"Whatever, The Breakfast Club tops all." Sharpay completely ignored the point I was trying to make (as usual) and went on talking. "And how could you have seen the Illusionist and not seen The Prestige?"

"They're both about turn of the century European magicians, how different could they be?" I asked. "I mean once you've seen one, you've pretty much seen the other."

"The difference is that Prestige was like, fifty times better." Sharpay said.

"You just like it because it has Christian Bale in it." I rolled my eyes.

"That's not the only reason I liked it." Sharpay said. "Don't hate him just because he's totally amazing."

"Didn't he beat up his mom?" I asked.

"Those were lies printed because his mom is a publicity hungry witch who wants to manipulate the success of the Dark Knight to her advantage." Sharpay sneered defensively. "I mean, isn't it kind of fishy that all of this happens in the premier weekend of his movie?"

"Whatever you say." I said. "So how about a movie, as in, in the theater."

"Sounds good to me." Sharpay said. "I'm thinking, Batman."

"What about Hancock or Get Smart?" I asked.

"We are so not having this conversation again." Sharpay said, pulling a penny out of pocket. "Heads Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, may he rest in peace, and tails Will Smith or Steve Carrel." Before she could throw the coin in the air, Taylor came running up to her.

"Oh my god Sharpay you'd never believe it. There's this boutique opening today and everything is like, dirt cheap, it's like a two hour drive from here and I desperately need to go, can I borrow your car?" She asked, all in one breath.

"Sure." Sharpay said, searching in her purse for her keys.

"Ohmigod, thank you!" Taylor said. "I can pick you up that smimsuit that you really wanted."

Sharpay stopped digging in her purse. "The white Dolce and Gabbana halter cut-out one piece?"

"What other one would I be talking about?" Taylor said, jumping up and down.

"Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my-" Sharpay stopped squealing and turned to me, giving me a sad look.

"Go to the sale." I said.

"Are you sure?" Sharpay asked. "I could just have Taylor pick it up for me."

"And risk getting the wrong cut-out, halter, Dolce and Gabbana one piece or whatever? I think not." I asked sarcastically.

Sharpay squealed and pulled me into a gigantic hug. "I am eternally indebted to you."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get in line." I joked. "Next time we go to the movies we're not seeing Batman."

"Um, that's noy debatable, we're going to Batman and that's final." Sharpay said, as she was being pulled away by Taylor. "But I swear I'll go over to your house after if I have time."

"Which is highly unlikely." Taylor added.

"Bye Troy!" Sharpay called behind her.

"Bye Shar." I muttered, slamming my locker door, slightly disappointed.

xXxXx

"Troy?" My dad asked, opening the door to my room. "It's two in the morning, why are you still up?"

"No reason… just some last minute studying." I said, pausing the song I was listening to on my iPod.

"There's not a girl in this room, is there?" He asked, starting to freak out a little bit. "Because if there is-"

"Dad, if there was a girl in here, the door would have been locked." I said.

"Oh." Dad said. "Well, keep it down, Tyler is asleep and I'm going to sleep now." My dad closed the door and I slumped back down into the chair at my desk.

It was ten pm. I'm pretty sure I had been stood up. Well, I guess you couldn't really call it being stood up, I mean, she told me that she would try to make, not that she definitely would. But it still kind of sucked. I was about to press play on my iPod and go back to whatever I was listening to, when I heard something moving at my window. I ignored it until my window was halfway opened and there was someone climbing into my room. Okay, you could say that I was freaking out, that is, until I realized that the figure sneaking into my room had blonde hair and was signaling me to keep quiet.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I told you I'd try to make it after I was done shopping." She said, closing the window. "Why? Are you not happy to see me?"

"No… just surprised." I whispered. "Won't your mom notice that you're not home?"

"On Tuesday nights she goes out for Cosmos with her other middle aged friends." Sharpay said, sitting on my bed. "She won't notice I'm gone, that's assuming that she even gets home before dawn."

"And how will you get away with hanging out here?" I asked. "My dad is sleeping."

"Trust me, this place is totally soundproof, back when this was Tyler's room, I snuck up here all the time and no one could hear a thing." Sharpay said, only realizing how awkward that had sounded after the words had left her mouth. Her cheeks flushed bright red and she crossed her arms. "You know… not that there was anything to hear."

Awkward silence. Seriously awkward silence. At this point, neither of us had anything to say. I couldn't help but notice that even though she wasn't saying anything, she was still looking around the room. "What are you looking at?"

"Oh, sorry, it's just that this place looks so different now that you live here instead of Tyler." Sharpay said, looking back up at me. "Equally as messy but still, different."

"That's because I'm not my brother." I said.

"I figured." Sharpay smiled up at me. "You have a slightly better sense of humor, you know? Not everything has to be so intense all of the time with you."

"Um, thanks I guess." I said. "That's a good thing, right?"

"Yes, that's a good thing. A really good thing." Sharpay yawned.

"That sale didn't ware you out too much, did it?" I asked with a laugh.

"No way, I'm totally fine." Sharpay said, sitting down on my bed, leaning against the headboard trying not to yawn again.

I laughed and sat down next to Sharpay. "Well now that you're half asleep and can easily be fooled into telling me all of your deepest darkest secrets."

"Don't do that." Sharpay said, resting her eyes.

"Why shouldn't I?" I asked.

"Because it just might work." Sharpay muttered. "Now shut up, I'm resting my eyes."

"Have you ever thought about dying your hair?"

"No comment."

"That's not an answer." I said, tickling her side.

"Okay! Okay! Stop!" Sharpay said, giggling. "Only when I was five, I wanted it to be pink."

"Who do you like best, me or my brother?" I asked.

"Hmmmmm…" Sharpay moaned sleepily.

"Don't make me tickle you again."

"Fine." Sharpay sighed. "It's too soon to tell."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I've only known you for like, a week and a half. And I haven't seen Tyler in two years. How am I really supposed to know which one of you I like better if I don't really know either of you?"

"That makes sense." I said. "On a scale of one to ten, one being a female repellent and ten being a piece of totally hunky man candy am I?"

"Seven."

"Why Seven?"

"You would have gotten a nine if only you hadn't used the term 'piece of totally hunky man candy'"

"What's your least favorite thing about me?"

"Your taste in movies."

"What's your favorite thing about me?"

"You don't take yourself too seriously like most guys."

"What is my best physical feature?"

"You have pretty blue eyes." Sharpay said, smiling. "I wish I had that eye color."

"You have stunning brown eyes." I said.

"Yours are prettier." Sharpay joked.

"Oh come on, an idiot could see that out of the two us you're the pretty one."

"Then how come I can't seem to get anybody I actually like to stick around."

"You're beautiful Shar, you're drop dead gorgeous. Not only that, but you're an amazing person. Don't ever doubt that."

Sharpay opened her eyes sleepily. "Thanks Troy."

I shrugged. "I meant it."

Sharpay smiled. "You know Troy, you're brother was a really great guy. But you're pretty kick ass too." Sharpay said, closing her eyes sleepily once again.

xXxXx

"Troy time to wake up for school." I heard a voice say. "Dad left early for a PTA meeting so he told me to… well what do we have here?"

I opened my eyes drowsily, I looked down seeing a sleeping mess of blonde hair breathing against me chest. "Get out of here Tyler."

"Who's the poor girl?" Tyler asked. "I think it's only fair to warn her that you tend to get emotionally attached to any girl who'll give you the time of day."

Sharpay began to fidget and her eyes fluttered open. She pushed her hair away from her face. As her eyes adjust she realized who she was looking at. She squinted. "Tyler?"

"Hi Sharpay." Tyler smirked. "Long time no see."

"Oh my god." Sharpay put her hand over her face slumped back into my bed.

"Can we talk?" I asked Tyler.

"Excuse us Sharpay, but I feel a brotherly bonding moment coming on." Tyler said, walk out the door.

I followed him and closed the door behind me. "What was that about?"

"I was just waking up, and I think you're the one who has the explaining to do." Tyler said. "I mean, hooking up with my old girlfriend? In my own room no less?"

"Nothing happened." I said plainly.

"I could see that by the fact that you two are both fully clothed." Tyler said. "But that's not the point."

"Then what is?" I asked.

"The point is that your mystery girl is my territory." Tyler said, stepping closer to me threateningly. "You didn't even bother to tell me that you knew her."

"It was none of your business." I said angrily. "And if you don't mind, I'm going to go make sure that Sharpay is okay."

"Not to burst your bubble, but that would be kind of pointless." Tyler said.

"And why is that?" I asked, opening the door.

"Because knowing Sharpay, she's probably climbed out the window by now." I said.

"That's dumb." I said, but sure enough, when I got into my room, the window was opened, and Sharpay was gone.

**Okay, so what's up? Besides the fact that Christian Bale was arrested? Not to act all fangirl-ish, but I will never get over that. Forget Micheal and Martha and Winona! FREE CHRISTIAN!! I want to get that on a t-shirt or something. Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system. Anyways... I'll bet that none of you ever guessed that Sharpay would find out that Tyler was in town... not. Sharpay, climbing out of the window was totally understandable, if you ask me. I mean, Troy's web of lies finally untangled. But the two are getting really cute together. I totally hated how I wrote that moment where Troy was all 'you're beautiful'. I'm never good at those kind of moments, I like writing them when they're just figuring out that they have chemistry, not being all dramatically in love. I'm horrible at dramatic moments. Anyways, I should have a new chapter up soon. Byez.**

**P.S FREE CHRISTIAN!! (sorry... I'm done now)**


	7. Butt out, Tyler

**Hey guys, so what's up? I just posted the last chapter of my previous story, The Game (yes... shameless advertising) so now I can update this one. So I'm going to say one thing that is completely off topic which you can totally skip over MILEY CYRUS IS GETTING ON MY DAMN NERVES!! Okay... I'm done. You can go ahead and read now...**

"How are you surviving?" I asked, leaning against Sharpay's locker. "On three hours of sleep, I'm like, half dead."

"I'm more like three quarters dead, which means that I'm not in the mood for small talk." Sharpay said, slamming her locker door and making her way towards home room.

I tried to keep up with her as she quickly made her ways through the halls. "Oh come on Shar. Say something."

"Well, what do you want me to say?" Sharpay asked.

"Is it going to be like this all day?" I asked. "I mean, with the whole giving me the cold shoulder thing?"

"As long as humanly possible." Sharpay said, entering the room and making her way to the desk.

"Oh come on Shar, he's only been here for like, three days."

"I'm sorry, but is that really supposed to matter?" Sharpay sat on top of her desk in home room, and turned to my seat behind hers. "How could you possibly think that it was okay for you to not tell me that Tyler is in town?"

"You didn't ask." I muttered.

"That is possibly the worst answer you could have given." Sharpay said, crossing her arms.

I sighed. "Okay, what if I said that I was worried you would only be interested in hanging out with my brother and not me?"

"I would want some more elaborations." Sharpay said bluntly.

"I just thought that if knew Tyler was here, every time you'd see me, you'd think 'Tyler's baby brother is talking to me again, ew. I wonder what Tyler is doing right now. I wonder what his abs look like now. I wonder if this nerd will ever stop talking to me. OMG, how does Tyler put up with this?'" I asked in my best valley girl impersonation voice.

"Is that seriously how you think the voice in my head sounds?" Sharpay asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know, that's the only girl voice I can do." I said with a shrug. "I'm sorry that I'm such a total and complete idiot.

Sharpay smiled. "Apology accepted."

"Thanks Shar." I said, relieved that she wasn't mad.

"Can I just ask you one thing though? No lies?" Sharpay asked, looking me straight in the eye.

"Anything."

Sharpay paused. "Did Tyler say anything about me? When he came back?"

Tyler had been my brother for my entire life. And I don't think that I'd ever hated him any more than I hated him at that very moment. I hated that Sharpay saw something in Tyler. I hated that Tyler was still pining for Sharpay as well. I hated that even though I knew that they were all wrong, they still seemed like the perfect couple. And I hated that I really wasn't supposed to hate any of this. But really, what choice did I have? "Yes." I answered reluctantly.

Sharpay tried not to show the huge smile that was growing on her dace. But I could tell that the thought of this made her happy. I hated this the most. "Thanks Troy." She said, standing up and getting into her seat as the bell rang.

xXxXx

Sharpay's POV

I closed Troy's window as I opened the door to his room, walking around the familiar hallway. "Troy?" I called.

"Geez Shar." I heard a voice from across the hall. "It's been two years, and you still scare the hell out of me.

I smile sheepishly. "Hey Tyler."

Tyler stood up and walked towards me "What? No hug for the guy you haven't seen since you were a sophomore?"

"It's so great to see you again." I said, giving him a hug. "I mean, under better circumstances that me waking up in you brother's bed and ditching via the window."

"Yeah, I can see that you still have no clue how to use a door." Tyler said with a laugh.

"Would it really be me if I did?" I asked.

"No, I guess not." Tyler smiled.

"So how have you been? I haven't seen you in like, forever." I said, trying not to sound too desperate.

Tyler shrugged. "Well I haven't been back here in like forever. I really missed it… and you."

"I missed you too." I said. "So what's it like in college?"

"Good… busy." Tyler said, sounding bored. "I'm still pre-law. Though I did get summer internship with a firm in New York, it's pretty cool."

"Oh yeah. Troy told me about that a while ago." I said, recalling back to when we ditched the entire second half of the day to hang out in the science gardens. Noticing that Tyler was stifling a laugh, I gave him a skeptical look. "What are you laughing at Ty?" I asked.

"Nothing… it's just that you're on first name basis with my little brother." Tyler said with a laugh. "It's just weird you know? I barely even call him by his actual name. And now I come back and you two are like, best friends. It's weird, like I still see him as this little kid who collected Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle dolls. I can't imagine that you guys having anything to talk about at all."

"Oh come on, you're talking to the girl who used to collect Disney Princess figurines." I said. "And he's really just a year younger than you… same as me. And you never seemed to hold my age against me."

Tyler smirked. "Well, that's because you have better breasts than Troy."

I slapped his arm. "God Tyler! You haven't grown up one bit."

"Relax, I'm just kidding, Shar." Tyler rolled his eyes at me.

"Well I can see that you still have the same sense o humor as you used to." I smiled. "Which is nice."

"Well I'm glad you think so." Tyler said, smiling down at me. Shivers. Major shivers. "Just tell me one thing."

"Anything." I said, having to crane my neck a little to look up into his eyes… not quite as pretty as Troy's eyes but beautiful just the same.

"Are you really all that interested in my little brother?" Tyler asked.

I shrugged. "Of course… he's a cool guy, much cooler than you give him credit for."

"That's not what I mean." Tyler said. "The kid is falling hard for you."

My eyebrows furrowed. "Has all that campus cafeteria food completely fried your brain?" I asked, crossing my arms. "He has a girlfriend."

"Who he never calls and avoids at all cost." Tyler said. "Come on, Pay. He has a major thing for you."

Before I could figure some kind of response, I heard the door open. "Tyler, I'm home." Troy said from downstairs.

xXxXx

Troy's POV

"Tyler, I'm home." I said. "And let me just say that I have no interest in murdering you because your not worth my sweat."

"You spent the whole bus ride home coming up with that one, didn't you?" Tyler asked. "That or you've been waiting your entire life for the chance to say something like that, either way it's pathetic."

I heard a feminine giggle. "God, Ty. Could you be any more cruel?"

"It can't be considered cruel if it's true." Tyler shrugged.

"Hey Sharpay." I nodded, trying to hide the shock that she was not only in my home, but talking to my jackass older brother. I could only imagine what he had told her about me.

"Hey Troy." Sharpay said, making her way down the stairs. "Hey Tyler, do you guys have anything to eat, I'm starved."

"Sure, you remember where the kitchen is, right?" Tyler said, following her down the stairs.

"I'm not stupid Tyler." Sharpay said, reaching the bottom of the steps.

"Hey Shar, do you remember all of those times we hooked up in the science gardens?" Tyler asked.

"Shut up Tyler." Sharpay turned to me. "He doesn't mean 'hook up' hook up."

"Well I thought that was implied." Tyler shrugged, faking innocence.

"Don't mind him, he's just a generally idiotic person." Sharpay said to me, while elbowing Tyler in the ribs. "Oh, Troy, a bunch of friends and I are spending the day at the beach next Saturday, there's going to be a bon fire and music and food and bunch of people and all of that stuff. We usually leave in the morning and just hang out there all day. Do you want to come?"

"You guys are having a beach day?" Tyler asked. "And inviting my little brother but not me? I'm simply insulted."

"Sorry Tyler, but you're sort of a senior citizen now. It would be like partying with Larry King." Sharpay said with a shrug. "So Troy, you want in?"

"Sure, I'd love-"

Before I could talk, Tyler butted in (surprise, surprise). "Okay, first of all if I'm going to be compared with someone over fifty at least let it be Hugh Hefner." Tyler said with a laugh. "And second of all, what if I offered to rescue you from the carpools, I mean, remember the time they stuck us in the back seat of that clown car with the broken air conditioner with four other people?"

Sharpay rolled her eyes. "Tyler, if I could forget that experience, you know I would."

Tyler let a big smile creep across his face. "Which is exactly why you'll be riding with me, in my air conditioned, comfortable and completely private BMW."

"Since when do you even have a car, Tyler?" Sharpay asked, sounding amazed. "Last time I checked, you were broke."

"That was two years ago." Tyler said. "And I'm only renting the BMW, for while I'm here in Albuquerque."

"In that case, sure, be at my house on Saturday at six in the morning, okay?" Sharpay asked looking down at her cell phone to check the time. "I have to go, see you at my house, Ty."

"You know it." Tyler said.

"And you'll be there too," Sharpay asked, turning to me. "Right, Troy?"

"Of course I will be." I said with a small smile, trying to pretend like I hadn't just been completely ignored by the girl I liked.

**Okay so, do you like? I have to go, I promised myself I wouldn't stay up late (I know, now that it's one in the morning it's kind of pointless, but still). Next chapter should be up soon. bye - LL4E **


	8. Forget about him, Sharpay

**Awww... I was so sad to see all of the Tyler hating in the reviews. I, for one, like Tyler. He's a nice guy underneath it all. And he's just being an older brother. I mean, if your little sister suddenly became all buddy-buddy with your ex who you still wanted like Troy and Sharpay did, I'm moderately sure that you would have a slightly different take on how Tyler was acting. I do see where you guys are coming from though. I could have done a better job not making him a total... you know... evil jerk. I do love Tyler's character though. He and Troy are alike in some ways. Anyways, you guys can read now. Oh, and something reeeeeeeeeeeally bad that doesn't involve Sharpay and Tyler will happen by the end of the chapter.**

* * *

I was leaning against my brother's rental car in Sharpay's parking lot

I was leaning against my brother's rental car in Sharpay's parking lot. It was six in the morning and no one wanted to be awake. I felt Tyler's hand on my shoulder. "Listen, Troy the odds are that I'll be catching up with old friends today while you go hide in some corner. So I'm really only going to have this chance to tell you the rules."

"I wasn't aware that there would be rules." I said. "I mean, I was the one invited, instead of desperately begging and offering up a rental care to drive around drunk high school students."

"There are rules because unlike you, I actually have a reputation with these people." Tyler said, sounding more and more pissed every second. "You know, they don't think that I'm just some kid that Sharpay took pity on."

"Are you sure? Because I'm pretty sure that's why Sharpay asked you out in the first place." I said, also getting annoyed.

"I'm going to ignore you right now and hope for your life that you listen to what I'm about to say." Tyler said.

"Good luck with that." I said, noticing Sharpay wearing a gigantic pair of sunglasses, talking to one of the people parked on the street.

"Rule number one: no bringing up fun childhood memories that involve me." Tyler said. "I don't want any of these guys hearing about the time I sat on your hamster when I was seven."

"I still haven't forgiven you for murdering Skippy." I said absently. Now noticing that Sharpay was carrying a clipboard and writing down something, I wondered what she was writing, probably calculating how much gas money they would be needing, or checking to see that everyone who was invited made it.

Tyler ignored my comment. "Rule number two: if I'm talking to a person, Sharpay included, you are not allowed to walk up to us and join in the conversation, putting me in the awkward position of having to tell my little brother to butt out, which would end up making me look like a total ass."

"Have you ever thought that you may look like a total ass because you are, in fact, a total ass?" I asked, still staring at Sharpay, who was now talking to Taylor. They seemed to be discussing their swimsuits, I was assuming that the one Sharpay was wearing was the one she had been obsessing over for the past few days.

Tyler still ignored me. "Rule three: if you feel like you're about going all drama queen on everyone, don't. Seriously, no one wants to hear you bitching about how horrible your life is because you were torn away from your mommy and your girlfriend. Honestly, no one cares."

"Really? Because Sharpay seemed to care when I was bitching to her." I said, not even noticing what I was saying at this point. Now I was just staring at Sharpay. The white cut-out Dolce and Gabanna swimsuit that Sharpay was obsessed with, she was wearing it under a pair of jean shorts. I couldn't help but notice the contrast between the pure white of her swimsuit against the tanned backdrop of her creamy skin. I traced the lines of her swimsuit with my eyes, just watching them go down her stomach and eventually disappearing under the denim of her shorts. Okay, so I may have totally sounded like a superficial jackass just then, but I wasn't even thinking of her in that way at the moment. I just thought how every aspect of her was so beautiful… the fact that she happened to be showing an incredible amount of skin at the moment was just a coincidental bonus.

"And rule number four: no doing that." Tyler said, now sounding angrier than ever.

I turned around and looked at Tyler. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"I mean, no ogling my ex girlfriend." Tyler crossed his arms. "Dude, just because she's too nice to tell you to stop being such an incredible pervert doesn't mean that I'm not willing to kick your ass if you even so much as look at her bellow the shoulders."

"You do realize that you two aren't dating anymore… right?" I asked skeptically.

"Not if I have anything to say about it." Tyler said with a wicked smile.

"What to you mean?" I asked.

Tyler looked at me like I was stupid. "Listen, I know that I give you little to no attention and in return, I try to ignore it when you annoy the hell out of me. But this is the one day, ever where I want you to just stay out of my way. This is my day. Please don't ruin it for me."

"Tyler!" Sharpay called from over by Taylor. "I call shotgun!"

Tyler smiled at Sharpay. "I wouldn't have it any other way." He said, his voice drenched in fake sweetness. And that was it. He wanted Sharpay back. And the worst part was that there was no way in hell that she would ever turn him down.

**xXxXx**

Sharpay's POV

I'd been sitting in the front seat of Tyler's rental for three hours. And luckily, Chad's car ran out of gas. I had layered a grey hoodie **(?)** over my swimsuit along with the NYU baseball cap I found in Tyler's backpack. I was inside the Seven Eleven **(?)** by the gas station, flipping through the issue of In Touch Magazine at the counter.

"Getting your fix on celebrity gossip?" I heard Tyler say with a laugh.

I smirked. "Oh come on, I know you're just dying to know whether or not Lindsey and Samantha are really together or not."

"They went out in public holding hands and wearing matching fedoras. I think it's officially official." Tyler scoffed sarcastically.

"Thank you very much, Perez Hilton." I said, putting the magazine down.

Tyler smiled down at me. "Come on, I'm buying super big gulps. Is cherry still your favorite?"

"What do you think?" I asked, following him to the slushy machine.

"How could I ever forget your obsession with those things?" Tyler smirked. "Remember that time I bought you ten red super red big gulps in one day during midterms?"

"One for every class of the day." I smiled. "You left one at my desk every class, and in my locker before gym and lunch. How you managed to keep them from melting, I have no clue."

"I still have no clue how you managed to finish all ten of those super big gulps." Tyler laughed. "And you still didn't have to pee until you got home."

I rolled my eyes. "Despite you asking me all of those questions about my apparent 'super-bladder'," I said, using air quotes. "It's still one of the most romantic gestures ever."

"Even better than when Molly Ringwald gave Judd Nelson her diamond earring?" Tyler asked.

"Did you just make a Breakfast Club reference?" I giggled.

"Why not? You only made me watch it like, five billion times." Tyler laughed.

"Which I totally appreciate." I smiled. "I mean, it takes a very special kind of guy to appreciate Molly Ringwald movies."

Tyler smiled down at me and handed me my super big gulp. "So Sharpay, did you miss me?"

I looked up at Tyler. "Of course I did, Ty." I shrugged. "I mean, I was in love with you… and you left. How could I not miss you?"

"Well I'm back now." Tyler said, his smile growing. "Find me when we get to the beach… we'll talk."

"Sounds good to me." I said, taking a sip of my drink and making my way back to the car.

**xXxXx**

We'd gotten to the beach twenty minutes ago and all I wanted to do was relax. I spent like, a billion hours in the car, so it was pretty much justified. I had laid my towel on the beach right by the water, it was perfect. And I was just about ready to lay on my stomach and spend the rest of the day tanning when I heard someone behind me. "Aren't you going to get in the water?"

"Troy and or Tyler, whoever is standing behind me, please don't make me move." I begged.

"It's Troy." The voice said, sitting in the sand next to me. "And just for that, I will make you move."

I turned over and looked up at Troy. "Okay, what do you want?"

"Let's go in the water." Troy said. He sounded so innocent and kiddish (despite the fact that he was shirtless, and had boarder-line supermodel biceps) that I couldn't help but smile.

"I'm pretty sure that this swimsuit isn't actually supposed to get wet." I said, taking my sunglasses off. "It would be easier just to lay here and tan."

Troy smirked down at me. "It's ten in the morning. There's not exactly that much sun to tan in."

"Well then I guess I'll just wait here until there is enough sun to tan in." I said, putting my sunglasses back on and turning back over.

"Don't make me splash you." Troy threatened.

"You wouldn't."

"I would."

"You're bluffing."

"Are you willing to take that risk?"

"Yes, in fact, I am."

"Fine then, have it your way." Troy said, gently splashing me with water. All of a sudden my choice to place my towel right next to the water didn't seem so wise.

"Wow, Bolton. I didn't think that you had the guts." I said, sitting up and removing my sunglasses.

"So you're not going to splash me back?" Troy asked.

"I never said that." I said, getting up and wading in the water, repeatedly splashing Troy in the process.

"Oh, so that's how you want to play, huh?" Troy asked while splashing me.

"Bring it, byotch." I laughed.

"You asked for it." Troy said, now splashing me mercilessly (no matter how lame that sounds).

"Okay, okay, stop it Troy!" I said. "I surrender, you win!"

Troy laughed. "Not until you tell me who is the hottest, coolest, sweetest, awsomest, most perfectest beach god in the entire universe."

I rolled my eyes. "You are Troy."

"You have to say the whole thing." Troy said, not bothering to stop splashing me.

"Fine. Troy Bolton, you are the hottest coolest sweetest, awsomest, most perfectest beach god in the entire universe."

"That wasn't very convincing." Troy said.

"I'm serious Troy, stop it." I said.

"Not until you say it like you mean it."

I rolled my eyes. "Troy Bolton, you are the hottest coolest sweetest, awsomest, most perfectest beach god in the entire-

"Troy?" A high pitched voice called. I looked up and saw a girl wearing a sheer black shirt over a red bikini top under it with jean micro mini and a fedora. She had dark wavy hair framing her shock ridden face.

And then the last word that I ever expected him to hear at the moment came out of Troy's mouth. "Gabriella." Troy said, sounding just as shocked as the girl looked. It was then that I put together the puzzle pieces, she was the long distance girlfriend.

* * *

**Dun, dun, duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun. I realize how stereotypical it is of me to bring back the girlfriend. But, you know, it had to be done. And I guess you guys have assumed that this is all Tyler's fault, and I can tell you right now that you're right. This really isn't helping me when I try to convince you guys that Tyler is a nice person, is it? Well... Tyler is cool. Whether he's evil or not. Deal with it. Sorry I didn't update as soon as I thought I would. I had to deal with all of this back to school crap. That's about it for now. Bye -LL4E  
**


	9. What's up, Gabriella

Troy's POV

**Hey guys… so here's the thing, I was well on my way to updating by last Sunday. But then I had to face the hell and a half that is back to school. So since I'm in an accelerated language arts program, I had required summer reading, which I had finished, right? My friend emailed me and asked me if I had finished my book report yet, and I was like 'what book report?' so instead of working on this, I had to crank out ten single spaced pages that would give my new teacher a good first impression of me all in one night. I had the worst first day of the year ever. But enough about me… go ahead and read.**

Troy's POV

This was weird. Weird and unexpected. At this point, I had to say something. "What are you doing here?"

"That's the first thing you say to your girlfriend who came all the way here just to visit you?" She asked, now smiling.

"Did Tyler call you?" I asked, probably not the smartest thing to ask.

"So what if he did?" She asked, running up to me and giving me a hug. "The point is that I'm here."

Tyler did this. I knew Tyler did this. And I think it was safe to say that I didn't give a damn about whether or not it was Tyler's day. At that moment I was about ready to kill him. "Gabriella… we need to talk."

"Of course we do!" Gabriella said, pulling me away from the water (and away from Sharpay) and brought me over to where a place where there weren't too many other people partying. "We haven't seen each other in forever! We have so much stuff to talk about."

"You're right." I said. "Look, Gabriella-"

"I know you were kind of hesitant to call me because you thought it was weird, we're both new the whole long distance thing. So I thought I'd come down here and show you that we're fine." She said happily.

"And you had to come all the way here to do that?" I asked, jut noticing the slightly hurt look on her face. "Why didn't you just tell me that you felt so bad about us?"

"I tried." Gabriella said, still sounding hurt. "You just brushed me off."

"I honestly had no clue you felt this way." I said. "I thought you were just having a hard time adjusting to this whole long distance thing."

"And you're not?" Gabriella asked, blinking tears away rapidly. "Tell me Troy… exactly how much did you miss me?"

I paused. What could you really say that? It seemed like there was nothing I could do to respond to what she had just asked. "We're not having this conversation… not now."

"Why?" Gabriella yelled at me. "Is it because you don't want me to embarrass you on front of all your new friends?"

I held her arm softly pulling her towards me, hoping that this would have a calming effect. "No… but let's just have a good time tonight, like always."

"You seriously don't get it, do you?" Gabriella glared at me and pulled her arm away from me violently. "I don't want to _just_ have a good time! I want you to talk to me, and to love me! Seriously love me!"

"I do love you, Gabi." I said.

"No, I want you to be in love with me. There's a difference, you know." Gabriella said, wiping tears away from her eyes, somehow managing to not smudge the heavy eye makeup she was wearing. "Well? Are you going to say anything?"

Before I could I heard the loud annoying voice of my brother. "Troy! Gabriella! Together at last." He said, stepping in between us, slinging one arm around Gabriella and one around me. "So! How's the happy couple?"

"What do you want Tyler?" I asked.

"I just wanted to see how you two were doing." He said with a laugh. "It's lunch time. And since we forgot to pack Troy's peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the crust cut off, you'll have to settle for beer and donuts like the rest of us. Gee, I hope you don't get a tummy ache Troy."

"It's fine, I'm not that hungry." Gabriella said.

Tyler smiled mockingly "Well, Troy here makes up for it because he's kind of hungry in more than one ways, if you know what I mean. Hungry for some soft, juicy, golden blonde-"

"What the fuck do you want Tyler?" I shouted.

"Troy!" Gabriella shrieked. I wasn't usually the one doing the swearing in the relationship.

"Will you excuse us for a second Gabriella? I feel a brotherly moment coming on." Tyler said, in his usual sarcastic tone that I completely hated at the moment.

"Sure." Gabriella said, with the same shocked look on her face.

As soon as she was out of hearing range, Tyler smirked at me. "Don't make me wash your mouth out with soap, young man."

"Will you just cut the bullshit for once and tell me why the hell you would do this to me?" I asked.

"Do what to you, Troy?" Tyler asked. "Invite your girlfriend to a party so that you could catch up? How horrible of me. I'm such a bad person."

"That's not what I meant." I glared at Tyler.

"Actually, I think that it is." Tyler smiled cynically. "You see, even if Sharpay won't say it herself, we all know that you're obsessed with her. So please just let this go before your girlfriend catches on."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said. Even though I did.

"Troy, when you think about it, I really didn't do anything, this would have happened eventually. You're just lucky that it happened this soon." Tyler said.

"Why are you so threatened by me and Sharpay being friends that you had to call in my girlfriend to make sure nothing was going on?" I asked.

"I'm not threatened. But your girlfriend seems to be." Tyler said.

"You know what? I'm not even going to talk to you about this." I said walking back to where everyone was sitting and eating.

"She's not stupid Troy." Tyler said. "She's going to figure it out."

He was right.

xXxXx

"Hey Sharpay." I said with a smile, Gabriella said that she was going out to get food for herself, so I had a very small window. I looked down at Sharpay, who was sitting on her towel with a few whit takeout boxes surrounding her. "You packed your own lunch?"

Sharpay smirked. "I know, how much of a dork am I? I was never really into the whole beer and donuts for lunch thing, so I bring my own lunch."

"You wouldn't, by any chance, have a few crumbs to spare for a starving boy?" I asked.

"Will Chinese food and a red velvet cupcake do?" She asked. "It's homemade… the cupcake, I mean. The Chinese food is just takeout."

"Sounds good." I said, grabbing the white box with chop suey in it. "So were you really planning to eat this all on your own?"

"I usually find someone to share it with." Sharpay said. "I mean, not every one can live off of beer and donuts like Tyler can."

"Did you know that when Tyler was eight, he refused to eat anything accept for chocolate covered marshmallows for two weeks straight?" I asked.

"No, but I can totally imagine it." Sharpay said. Taking a bite out of her egg role.

"Sorry I ditched you earlier." I said.

Sharpay shrugged. "You just had to talk to your girlfriend. No big deal. You must have been totally thrilled to see her."

"Yeah… girlfriend… thrilled." I said.

"So things were a bit awkward between you two. That's understandable." Sharpay said, talking with her mouth full of orange chicken.

"Yeah… I guess." I said, deciding that it was best to drop the subject. "So are you still completely opposed to getting in the water."

"Not until my chow mein is digested." She said, again, with her mouth full.

"Do you have some sort of aversion to water that I don't know about?" I asked.

"Nope." She said. "I just have an aversion to messing up my extremely expensive swimsuit."

"What are you even supposed to do while wearing swimsuit if you don't swim?" I asked.

"Bask in the sun and be adored." She smirked.

"I'll admit, you are extremely adorable." I said.

"You're pretty adorable yourself." She giggled. "Kind of naïve at times, but adorable, none the less."

"Funny, I never really thought of him as naïve, more like… refreshingly youthful." I heard Gabriella say.

"Hi." Sharpay said, smiling huge. "You must be Gabriella, I've heard so much about you."

"And I've heard so much about you." Gabriella said. "You're Tyler's airhead ex girlfriend, am I right?"

"I guess I could come off like that sometimes." Sharpay said, she seemed strangely unscathed by her remark. "You want to share some Chinese food?"

"No thanks, I already had a garden fresh salad at the deli down the street." Gabriella said. "You should really try one, it would really help you with that bloating problem that you seem to have. Not that you don't look great in the swimsuit, but buying it in white may have just been a little bit of a stretch, so to speak."

Sharpay never stopped smiling. "You know what? I'm pretty sure you two could use some alone time, and Tyler wanted to talk anyways, I might as well let him have some takeout."

"You really don't have to do that, Sharpay." I said. Feeling like a total ass (you know, trying to keep the girl you like from getting back together with your brother in the presence of your girlfriend).

"Oh, trust me Troy, I think I do." She said, giving me a 'you have to talk to your psycho girlfriend' look.

"Good call, Malibu Barbie." Gabriella snapped.

"I'll see you later Troy." Sharpay said.

As soon as Sharpay left, Gabriella let her guard down. "Oh my God, isn't it pathetic that these people they're your friends just because they knew your brother?"

"What the hell was that about Gabriella?" I asked.

"I could ask you the same thing!" Gabriella yelled. "Why are you hanging out with your brother and all of his lame ass friends? And what was with that girl, I mean, I can understand why you would feel sorry for her, but why are you letting her eat with you?"

"I'm not _letting_ her eat with me. I want her to eat with me." I said. Then I realized that I was saying this to my girlfriend. "I mean, she's not so bad for a conformist."

But it was too late, the damage was done. "Oh my god. I don't believe this."

"You don't believe what?" I asked, I don't know why I was still bothering to play dumb.

"This... all of this. You not wanting me here, it's all about her." Gabriella crossed her arms. "This whole thing between us is all about her."

"I don't know what you're talking about… maybe you just need some sleep or something." I said.

"No, I don't." Gabriella said. "You know what? This isn't a bad thing. Now we know what the problem is so we can fix it!"

"You're insane Gabriella." I said.

"Just stay away from Blondie and we'll be fine." She said. "No big deal."

"Yes, it is a big deal." I said. "Gabriella, you can't just tell me who I can and can't hang out with."

"I can if you're starting to like her more than me." Gabriella said. "If she's coming between us, then you should be willing to give her up"

"I don't have to give anything up, Gabi." I said. "I can't like her… Tyler wants her back."

"You said that you can't like her, not that you don't." Gabriella said.

I shrugged. "Of course I like her… she's a good friend, but that's it-"

"You know what? Save it Troy." Gabriella said, starting to walk away.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Anywhere but here." She said, not even stopping. "Call me when you figure out that I'm right."

xXxXx

Sharpay's POV

"Hey." I said, standing behind Tyler. It was like, ten p.m. and most of the people had left the beach. Tyler was picking up empty cans from next to the fire pit. "You need any help with that?" I asked, sticking my hands in my pockets, I had changed into a pair of low rise skinny jeans and a tank top.

"Yeah." Tyler said. "You know what? Let's take a break, we need to talk."

I shrugged. "About what?"

Tyler turned and smiled at me "Actually, there's this amazing internship at a law firm right here in Albuquerque. I'm thinking of transferring The University of New Mexico and taking it. I mean, I got accepted. And the internship combined with a degree from UNM would be pretty much the same thing as a degree from NYU."

"So are you saying that you're coming back?" I asked.

"I'm saying that I _can_ come back." Tyler said. "Should I?"

"Why are you asking me?" I asked.

"Because you're the only good reason I have to come back." Tyler smirked. "So should I come back?"

"You can't be serious." I said. "I mean seriously Tyler, you made it New York, why would you ever want to came back here?"

"Because New York doesn't have you." He said. And that was the last thing I remember him saying before I felt the familiar feeling of his lips pressed against mine. At this point I knew that if I had anything to say about it, Tyler was not going anywhere.

**Awww… that was cute. Why do I get the feeling that no one is going 'awww' with me? You totally should, that was an awww worthy moment. Aww worthy moments can happen to people who aren't meant to be together. I have a feeling that not many of you guys are agreeing with me on this… so in other news… did you hear Ashley's cover of Never Gonna Give You Up? What did you guys think of it? I thought it was overproduced… too much extras and not enough vocals or actual music, kind of kiddish techno crap… and Ashley is better than that. That's just my opinion though, and I'm kind of biased, because good older song have been turned into bad pop too many times (Umm… remember when Britney did I Love Rock and Roll, for instance) so it kind of turned me off from all covers… ever. Unless it's something truly amazing. I'll stop ranting now… later.**


	10. Having fun, Troy?

**Okay... so I have some great news... I THINK I'VE BEEN RIPPED OFF!! And I'm happy! So I was typing in random stuff on the search thingy on this site (yeah, I'm really that much of a loser), so I typed in 'Troy the game' in the high school musical category and my story came up 23rd. Which isn't much of a surprise because it's titled 'The Game'. But then I saw another story that sounded somewhat similar to mine. It was a Troyella, but the term 'the game' was used in the summary, so I clicked on it, and saw no similarities, but the author didn't really get into the plot yet, so I'm still watching closely. Plus, I checked out the author's favorites list (yes, I realize that I have to much time on my hands), and there were some Troypays! So it's not completely improbable that he or she could have come across mine! I know some author get annoyed when people use their ideas, but I actually like the idea of someone liking something I wrote enough to make it their own. So in honor of this event, I'm updating.**

I walked into my room to see Sharpay sitting on my bed, holding my digital camera, scrolling through the pictures. "Hey, Troy. You know, these are pretty good. I like the ones you took at the beach, especially the one where Chad is trying to untie Taylor's halter-"

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Visiting of course, You haven't returned my calls for the past two days." Sharpay said.

"Maybe because I had to hear that you were back with my brother… from my brother." I said. "I know on front of you, he's some sort of saint, but he's not so fun when he knows something you don't."

"I would have told you that Tyler and I are back together if you just answered your phone." Sharpay muttered, nonchalantly.

"Why are you even back with my brother, anyways?" I asked.

"I don't have to explain myself to you." Sharpay said, not even looking up.

"I know, I know." I said, grabbing my camera away from Sharpay, forcing her to look at me. "But you're just… way too good for him"

"Um… you don't have the right to tell who I'm too good for." Sharpay said, now picking up my iPod and looking through my songs. "Why do you even care so much, anyways?"

"Because you're my friend and he's my brother, and I don't want it to be awkward when-" I stopped myself. "I mean, _if_ you guys break up." I said.

"I prefer not to think that far ahead." Sharpay said.

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you." I said with a reluctant shrug.

"I won't." Sharpay said, holding up three fingers. "Scout's honors."

"Okay, so what else is up?" I asked.

"You and Gabriella." Sharpay said. "Are you two okay?"

"Why would you bring Gabriella up?" I asked, trying to hide that this was not a subject I wanted to talk about.

"You brought up Tyler." She said, still looking through my music collection on my iPod. "I hope you two aren't in some kind of fight or something."

"Actually, we're fine." I snapped, okay, I guess I may have been, well, embellishing the truth a bit, but I didn't exactly care at the moment. "We're better than fine actually. I should really thank Tyler for calling her down here."

Sharpay looked up and raised an eyebrow at me. "Um… she sort of stormed off yesterday, mumbling 'that whore is messing with the wrong bitch's man' under her breath"

"You have got to be kidding me." I said.

"So… who's the whore?" Sharpay asked, who had gone back to looking through the artist list on my iPod.

"There is no whore." I said. "Gabriella just overreacted about us being friends."

"You mean I'm the whore?" Sharpay asked.

"Yes… you're the whore." I said. "I mean, you're not _a_ whore, just _the_ whore that you were referring to just now."

"I know what you mean." Sharpay said. "We can change the subject now if you want to."

"Okay." I said.

"Just one more thing." Sharpay said, holding up my iPod. "Why do you have Vanilla Ice on you workout play list? I mean, of all the white rappers you could have chosen, why would you pick the one who was enough of a loser to go on the Surreal Life?"

I rolled my eyes. "I went through a phase, okay?"

"Whatever." Sharpay said. Then her phone started buzzing. Sharpay's face lit up when she saw what her phone said. "It's Tyler texting me."

"He's across the hall." I pointed out. "Why would he text you?"

"I'll be right back." Sharpay said.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Across the hall."

xXxXx

An hour. Sharpay had been in Tyler's room for an hour. I didn't even want to think about what two teenagers could do alone in an hour. At this moment, I was contemplating whether or not to barge in their. I mean, she had climbed through my window to hang out me. Not to make out with my older brother. I guess, on some level, I hated it that Sharpay wanted to spend time with my brother more than she wanted to spend time with me. I guess it was understandable though… I mean, they were dating. But I still couldn't stand it. I was done contemplating. I had taken the first step out of my room and I was already second guessing every move I made. But I didn't stop.

I opened the door to the guest room, and Sharpay was sitting on Tyler's office chair, laughing, while Tyler was on the bed. "Hey, what are you laughing at?" I asked.

"I was just telling Sharpay about the time when you were five and you thought that if you ate nothing but carrots, you'd turn into a rabbit." Tyler said. "Oh, and by the way, of course you can come into my room and interrupt my date without asking."

Before I could blow up at my brother, Sharpay giggled and turned to me. "Did you really turn yellow?"

"I was five, okay?" I snapped, flushing bright red. "That's nothing. Did Tyler ever tell you about the time when he was nine years old and got his first red bull at the seven-eleven. He ended up drinking eight of them. My mom thought he was having a seizure."

"Seriously?" Sharpay asked.

"She took him to the hospital and everything." I smirked, noting that Tyler was glaring at me.

Tyler sat up straight.. "Hey Troy, do you remember when you were ten and you would spend six hours a day watching the Wonder Years on TV Land?"

I glared at Tyler. "When Tyler was eight he fainted at a Britney Spears concert."

"Sharpay, did you know that the Titanic was Troy's favorite movie until he turned twelve?" Tyler asked Sharpay.

"Really? What happened when he was twelve?" Sharpay asked.

"He discovered internet porn." Tyler said with a wicked smile.

"That's not true." I said, blushing again.

"Whatever you say Troy." Tyler rolled his eyes at me.

"When Tyler was eleven, he thought that his science teacher was Mr. Miagi from the Karate Kid."

"When Troy was fourteen he wore the same Star trek shirt for four weeks straight without washing it"

"When Tyler was nine he was afraid of the hyenas from the Lion King."

"When Troy was twelve, he couldn't sleep for two weeks after he saw the Virgin Suicides."

"When Tyler was ten he would watch boy band music videos and practice the dance moves in his room."

"When Troy was seven, my dad dressed up as a clown at his birthday party and-"

"Okay, even though this is fun and admittedly juicy… I'm going shopping with Taylor, so I have to go." Sharpay said, getting up and giving Tyler a quick kiss of the lips (which, by the way, made me puke in my mouth a little). "And answer your phone Troy."

The second that Tyler heard Sharpay close the door behind her, Tyler turned back into the evil older brother I knew he was. "So, little bro, how do you like playing hardball?"

"Why would you sabotage me like that?" I asked.

"You know, technically, I didn't sabotage you because you're not trying to get Sharpay." Tyler said. "And even if you were trying to get Sharpay to like you, technically, I wouldn't have to sabotage you because you already lost."

You know, the sad part about this statement was that he was right.

**Yes... it's sort of short... or really short, but whatever. I got the eating carrots and turning yellow thing from Scrubs and/or House (I saw it on both shows). I had fun writing this chapter, embarrassing childhood memories are funner when they're not yours. Well... bye.**


	11. I miss you, Sharpay

**Happy tuesday, everybody. I' in a good meed, mainly because tomorrow is a late arrival day, so I get to sleep in for an hour, but partly because I get to start writing more Troypay... no, I did not say _implied_ Troypay. Actual Troypay. But this chapter is just the beginning, so it may be a little bit light on the Troypay... but don't give up... **

A NOTE FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T MIND ME SLIGHTLY SPOILING THE STORY JUST A LITTLE: **When you guys say that there is no hope for Troypay in this story, it makes me sad (because there totally is). And just for future reference, I hate OC relationships, unless it's a bittersweet type thing, I hate when it's just like 'they were perfect for eachother in every concievable way... bla bla bla... he was the only one who saw who she truly was... bla bla bla... he was the only stable thing she had... bla bla bla... and they all lived happily ever after.' I also have an intense hatred of fluff (probably because I suck at it... but still) so even if Tyler and Sharpay seem completely perfect, there is no way I'd ever leave them together.**

Troy's POV

"So Tyler and Sharpay have been together for a week now, huh?" Gabriella asked. We were at some ritzy restaurant that (get this) Sharpay had suggested. It was our second date since the whole beach thing. I had totally swallowed my pride (and my better judgment) and tracked Gabriella down, it turns out that Gabriella was staying in Albuquerque indefinitely. Somehow, Mister and/or Miss Montez had a no problem with letting her ditch school.

"Yeah." I said absently. In the past week, Sharpay had been at our house every waking second out of school at my house. Tyler would drive her to and from school, and she'd leave at least a half an hour after curfew every day. The funny part was, even though she spent all that time at my house, the only time she ever said anything to me was to suggest the restaurant. Okay… so I guess I'd kind of been giving her the cold shoulder. But she was dating my brother. Again. After he ditched her. I think me being a little bit pissed off was acceptable. I tried to put these thoughts in the back of my head, so that Gabriella wouldn't notice that her attempt at conversation was extremely one sided.

"Isn't it coincidental that both of Albuquerque's two biggest boring townies find a way to stay together forever?" Gabriella asked. "I mean seriously, they're like, a match made in loser heaven."

"You know, one of those loser townies is really nice." I said.

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Honestly, I wouldn't care if that girl was Mother Theresa, if she thinks that she can get away with drooling all over you while dating your brother at the same time, she's an even bigger idiot than I thought she was, and that's saying something."

"She's not drooling over me." I muttered, trying my hardest not to sound bitter.

"Troy… you are so naïve, so innocent. And I really, really love that about you." Gabriella put her hand over mine. "But that girl is a whore, and she's taking advantage of you."

"You don't even know her!" I said, I felt weirdly protective about Sharpay.

"Troy, I don't understand why you're defending her." Gabriella shook her head at me. "I mean, I'm your girlfriend, aren't you supposed to be on my side?"

"I am on your side, but she isn't the enemy." I said, now kind of annoyed.

"This is so sad it's almost funny." Gabriella said. "I leave you alone for two weeks and you start drooling over little miss perfect the second I leave! What happened to the Troy I knew back in Santa Barbara? The one who didn't give a damn about all of these rich snobs?"

"I don't care about rich snobs, but I do care about her!" I said. And at that moment, I realized that I had just crossed a line.

"You know what, Troy? Forget about it." She said, pulling the napkin off her lap, standing up, and picking up her purse. "And forget about me."

"Gabriella, wait." I said, standing up. I didn't want to make a scene, especially when one of the waiters had been staring at us all night, probably expecting us to dine and dash.

"Wait for what, exactly, Troy?" She asked, turning on her heel and glaring at me. "Wait for you to figure out that she isn't like you and me? Wait for you grow up? Wait for you decide whether or not this is working? Because I don't have that kind of time!"

"Just because I'm friends with another girl doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with us." I said.

"No." Gabriella crossed her arms. "It's the fact that you're in love with her. That means that there's something wrong with us. Goodbye, Troy." She said, whipping around and storming away.

**xXxXx**

Today was one of those days where I wished I could just crawl under a rock and stay there. Not only had Gabriella completely disappeared all together, and I had stayed up until two in the morning trying to find her, but I was at school. Feeling completely alienated. It's not that no one wanted to talk to me, I mean, Chad and the guys from the team weren't treating me any differently or anything, but they weren't who I wanted to talk to.

Chad was standing by my locker (as usual) and telling me about some wet T-shirt incident involving the girls' soccer team (also, as usual). "…so then Casey Harmon accidentally spills her Gatorade all over Jenna Elliot's tank top, and I'm telling you, she had this tattoo of a pixie right across her-"

"Have you ever felt like you were living someone else's dreams? Like you have everything that you know that you're supposed to want… but you really don't want it?" I asked, momentarily forgetting who I was talking to.

"When I was ten, I went through a phase where I wanted to quit basketball and have a career in professional golfing." Chad shrugged. "Does that count?"

"No… not really." I said, grabbing my textbook.

"In that case, nope." Chad said. "And since when have you been all deep in thought about that stuff, I mean, you're the star on the basketball team, you're a new kid, and yet you're in with the popular kids, and you have girlfriend who is legions out of your league. What kid of problems could you possibly have?" Chad asked.

"That's kind of my point." I said, closing my locker, but not before a piece of paper fell out.

"What's that?" Chad asked.

I shrugged, picking it up off of the floor. "Looks like a note."

_**Meet me free period, you know where to go**_

_**-Sharpay**_

"Damn it." Chad said, leaning over my shoulder, reading the note. "Why does all of the good stuff never happen to me?"

"Why are you so sure that this is a good thing?" I asked, stuffing the note in my pocket. "I mean, we really haven't talked in a week, other than when she was leaving my brother's room three days ago, all she did was ask me about Gabriella and recommended some fancy restaurant for us to go out to… and it's not like that even counts." I said, probably sounding somewhat bitter.

"Dude, I know you." Chad said, turning away as the warning bell rang. "And there is no way in hell that you are standing this girl up."

**xXxXx**

I cautiously headed up the steps to the science gardens. I guess I really had nothing to be afraid of. I mean, there was really nothing she could do that would actually do any harm to me what so ever. But, for some unknown reason, I was completely dreading the thought of her only wanting to talk so she could ask me something along the lines of 'I'm making Tyler dinner this weekend, what would he like better, Italian or Mexican?'. All of that was put out of my mind, when I got to the top of the stairs and saw Sharpay, staring out the window, I was just happy to see her. And I was all of a sudden incredibly happy that she wanted to talk to me, it didn't matter what she wanted to talk about.

She smiled as she turned and saw me. "I wasn't sure if you'd show."

"I'd never ditch you." I admitted, I hated it when Chad was right.

"You could have fooled me," She smirked. "I mean, the way you've been ignoring me all week."

"I haven't been ignoring you." I lied, taking a seat next to her.

"Um…yeah, you have." Sharpay crossed her arms. "I just want to know why?"

"You're dating my brother." I said. It really wasn't even an answer, it just kind of slipped out of my mouth.

"So?" Sharpay shrugged. "I mean, I won't lie. It's been kind of awkward between us, but it's not worth stopping being friends over."

"You don't get it." I said. "You're dating my brother _again_. After he left you the first time."

"But now he's staying for me." Sharpay smiled. "I would have thought that you would be happy for me."

"It's not that I'm not happy for you." I said, sounding kind of frustrated. "It's just… you don't see the annoying older brother Tyler I see."

"And you don't see the perfect boyfriend that I see." Sharpay said. "Can't we just agree to disagree and move on?"

"Yeah, sure." I said.

"No." Sharpay said, all of a sudden dead serious. It was weird seeing her so vulnerable. "You have to promise me that we'll stay friends."

"I promise." I said, with a smile, I honestly couldn't help it.

"I know this sounds really crazy stalker-like… but even though I've only known you for like a month, I seriously hated not having you around. It was really weird not having you there to talk to and stuff, you know? Tyler is great and all but he just isn't-" she paused beginning to blink rapidly. "Damn it, Troy. I promised myself that I wouldn't start crying."

"It's okay… I really missed you too." I said. "You have no idea what it's like to only have Chad to talk to."

Sharpay giggled. "Thank you… you always know what to say." She said, surprising me by pulling me into a hug. "You know… I really do love you Troy."

"I love you too." I said. I know that she didn't mean it in the way that I did, but I could live with that for the moment. I was just preoccupied with hoping that I'd never have to let her go.

"This is perfect." Sharpay said, still showing no signs of wanting to let me go. "One hundred percent, completely perfect."

"Perfect." I agreed, and it was that moment when I was sure that there was something there. It wasn't just me anymore, she never wanted to let go either.

**So HA! to those of you who thought Troypay was impossible. It officially is. Tyler's not in this chapter though. Whatever. He might not make an appearance next chapter either, but he'll definitely be in the one after that. That's all for now, you guys. Please be happy with this, and try to lay off on the Tyler hating -LL4E**


	12. Don't do it, Sharpay

**Okay, I know I haven't updated in like, ages, and you guys have probably completely lost interest, but I have something of a peace offering. As in an extra juicy chapter. That's all I'm saying. You have to read to find out. So thanks to this totally awsome five day weekend that I have going (I'm on day three) I'm determined to get another chapter done, since I've been neglecting this for so long. I'll let you guys read now... enjoy.**

**Oh, and this chapter is going to be more T rated than any of the other ones okay? Consider yourselves warned.**

I climbed up the side of Sharpay's balcony. I had no clue how she managed to climb through my window, because it was hard work getting up there. I mean, her room was surrounded by trees, I was lucky it was the only one with a light on, because if it wasn't, I never would have found it. When I got to the top, I took a minute to catch my breath, then I noticed something truly eye popping: Sharpay Evans, undressed. Well… not completely undressed, but pretty damn close. Everything was covered, but, it didn't leave much to the imagination. She was standing on front of a tall mirror, apparently scrutinizing how she looked in the red and black… um… ensemble that she was wearing. She was busy trying to pinch some non-existent fat on her waist. But you know… that wasn't exactly what I was looking at. But you can't accuse me of being a pig… I mean, what was I supposed to do?

As Sharpay turned to check out how her ass looked in the mirror (awesome… by the way) when she saw me in the balcony. "Holy shit Troy!" She said, ducking behind her bed. She wrapped herself in a bed sheet and unlocked the door to her balcony, letting me into her room. "Exactly how long were you planning to stay there until you alerted me that I had an audience?" She said, stepping into her closet, and closing the door.

"Sorry… I swear, I was only there for like a second." I said, looking away. "You know, you should really close your blinds while you're not dressed."

"You're right… that would totally stop guys from climbing up the side of my house to ogle me." Sharpay said, coming out of her closet wearing a tank top with sweats. "So why did you come over?" She asked.

"You've spent so much time in my room. I just wanted to see yours." I said, stepping into the spacious but messy room.

"Well, welcome to casa de Sharpay." She said, sitting on her bed. "You want to hang out and watch TV or something?"

"Wouldn't your mom be pissed?" I asked.

"My mom is probably a hundred miles away, partying with twenty-two year olds." Sharpay said with a giggle, though I found it more disturbing than entertaining. "Now stop poking holes in my plan, I have the Prestige on DVD and I've been dying to say I told you so all day."

"Not this again." I rolled my eyes, leaning back on her bed.

"You don't have the right to say anything until you've seen of the movie." Sharpay said, going over to the TV to set up the movie. "And not to mention, Christian Bale."

"Pretty boy." I muttered playfully.

"Shut up." Sharpay giggled. "You know, you really shouldn't talk about Christian Bale pretty boy, seeing as you're the loner new kid who's only friend is the perverted block headed jock from the basketball team."

"And my brother's girlfriend." I said. I don't think I meant to say it out loud. But once I did, I was glad I had.

"That's sweet Troy." Sharpay said, smiling brightly. She just looked at me for a second, deep in thought, then she just kind of snapped out of it. "But that still doesn't excuse you trash talking Christian Bale. If you do it again, I'd be forced to throw you off the balcony."

"You'd be _forced _to throw me off of the balcony?" I raised an eyebrow.

Sharpay grinned wickedly. "I never said I wouldn't enjoy it."

I smiled, as Sharpay slid in the bed nonchalantly, apparently not noticing that I wasn't quite focusing on the opening of the movie.

xXxXxX

"…So then Molly Darwin's tank top got totally soaked and you could even see through the white part, so she had to walk all the way home with like that, it was awesome." Chad said, we were shooting hoops outside of the school during free period.

"Sounds awesome." I said sarcastically.

"You thought that was awesome?" Chad asked enthusiastically. "Then you should hear about the time the strap of Nicole Maxwell's dress ripped and-"

"I wasn't being serious." I said.

Chad scowled at me. "Dude… like you're really one to talk. You managed to chase your hot girlfriend away… and the only girl who will get within like, three feet of you is dating your brother. At least I get to _see_ some action."

"Oh yeah?" I asked.

"Yeah, it sure beats your computer screen." Chad laughed, nudging me.

"Well I'll have you know that I got an eyeful of Sharpay Evans wearing barely anything yesterday." I said, I didn't know why I was bragging about it, I mean, it wasn't like Sharpay actually wanted me to see anything.

"Are you kidding me man? She stripped for you?" Chad asked excitedly.

"Not exactly… I was in her room though." I said. "She was trying on one of those Victoria's Secret outfits… or whatever you call them. She put on her clothes and let me in."

"What did you do at her house?" Chad asked, probably still hoping for some sort of pornographic story.

I shrugged. "We watched the Prestige."

"That Christian Bale movie?" Chad asked.

"Yeah." I said. "Sharpay was right. Waaaay better than the Illusionist."

"Okay, first of all, never, NEVER, watch a movie where someone hotter than you appears, because you know that she's thinking about him and not you." Chad scolded. "And second of all, you were in one of the hottest girl in the entire school's room, and your first thought was 'why don't we watch a movie?' What is wrong with you!?"

"Dude… you said it yourself, she's my brother's girlfriend." I said.

"Good point." Chad said, shrugging it off. "Anyways, I don't know who I'm more jealous of right now, you or your brother."

"Why my brother?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"Dude… think about it. Why would Sharpay be buying that stuff if she wasn't going to wear it for someone?" Chad asked, slapping me on the back.

And that was when the extreme feeling of shock and disgust set in.

xXxXx

Sharpay sat on my bed, my iPod in her hand. "So Tyler is visiting some friends, and I was thinking that maybe we could go to this street fair downtown, I know that going to streets fairs is kind of a chick thing, but think about it, you and a bunch of girl who are hyped on funnel cake and high on life. I know you have a girlfriend and all, but seriously, what Gabriella doesn't know won't hurt her-"

"Are you sleeping with my brother?"

Sharpay looked up at me, obviously shocked. "What?"

I hadn't meant to be that blunt… I had planned to coax it out of her maybe. But now that I'd said it, I guess that there was really no going back. "Are you and Tyler having sex?" I asked.

"That's none of your business." Sharpay said, looking dazed.

"So is that a yes?" I asked.

"No." Sharpay snapped, standing up. "And remind me again why I should be talking to you about any of this?"

"Just answer my question, yes or no, and I swear I'll drop it." I said.

Sharpay scowled and rolled her eyes. "No… not yet at least."

For some reason, this didn't make me feel any better. "Why? Tyler left you… for two years. Without calling or anything. He's been back for like, a month, and all is forgiven?"

"I thought you said you'd drop it." Sharpay said, sounding pissed.

"Well sorry if I'm not reacting well enough to the news that my best friend is screwing my brother." I said sarcastically.

"We haven't done anything yet!" Sharpay shouted.

"But you're going to." I shouted back.

"So what? It's not like you and Gabriella have never had sex."

"How would you know that?"

"It's true isn't it?" Sharpay smirked, crossing her arms.

"It's different with me and Gabriella." I said.

"How? How is it any different from Tyler and me? You and Gabriella are like, a billion miles away from each other and you're still making it work."

"Gabriella and I are over. We've _been_ over since before I moved here." I admitted.

"You told me that you two were still going strong." Sharpay looked at me angrily.

"Well I lied, okay?"

"Why would you do that?" Sharay asked, seeming confused.

"I don't know, now can we please move on?" I asked, flushing red.

"No, I don't think we can." Sharpay glared at me. "So you've been lecturing me for considering the possibility that I just might have sex with my boyfriend, when you've been lying to me this whole time?"

"Yeah, I get it, I'm a liar, I get it. But does that mean that you should just jump into bed with my brother?" I asked.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't." Sharpay said.

That's when I realized there was really only one right answer to that. I could go on saying stuff about how was just trying to protect her, or that he'd just end up leaving her, but that wouldn't be true. "Because you could have been with me."

Sharpay looked completely caught off guard. But I don't think that she was surprised about me liking her. She just kind of stood there, not saying anything. She got a little bit closer to me, almost cautiously. "Troy…"

"What?" I snapped. "You obviously have your mind made up about this whole thing. It shouldn't matter what I say, as long as you still love Tyler-"

That when she kissed me. Don't get me wrong, I most definitely kissed back. But she kissed me. Not the other way around. I guess I'm kind of a jerk, for being so excited because my brother's girlfriend kissed me, but I wasn't thinking about how she was Tyler's girlfriend, I was thinking about how the girl I loved was finally acknowledging that I wasn't just the best friend.

Sharpay fell back onto my bed, and began unbuttoning the top buttons of my shirt, and my hands slipped under the back of her shirt, feeling her warm back against my hands. After messing with the buttons on my shirt for a minute, she let me shrug it off. Soon after that, she slipped her shirt over her head, leaving her in her bra and jeans. Through this, we made sure that our lips never lost contact.

There was the sound of a door opening downstairs. "Troy, have you seen Sharpay? I think her phone is off or something."

My mind went completely blank, but Sharpay sprung into action. "Oh my god." She muttered, probably upon realization of what had almost happened. She grabbed her shirt off the floor, struggling for a second to pull it over her head, then she ran over to my window, pulling it open.

"Sharpay…" I started, but I really had no clue what I could possibly say to her.

She climbed out, at she had so many times before. But before leaving she took one look at me. "I am so sorry."

**Okay, is that juicy enough? I know nothing actually happened, and Sharpay is probably like, not talking to Troy. But on the bright side, their had their first real kiss :) Okay, so while reviewing, keep in mind that I can't stand reading descriptive accounts of kissing let alone writing about it, so this was like torture for me. And worse yet, I had to write it from Troy's point of view... can you say traumatic? And if it was that bad to write, I'm not sure how easy it'll be to read. This was a one time thing that had to be done. So please, don't trash the chapter just because of the dumb make out scene near the end of it. I'll try to update soon (hopefully the next chapter won't be anything like this one). Bye for now -LL4E**


	13. What the hell, Troy?

**Okay, I haven't updated in about a bazillion years. But I will sincerely try to update sooner. I promise. But being the over achiever that I am (note the sarcasm), I decided to take on two more advanced courses this year, and I wasn't quite used to the workload. So I'll try to write as much as possible, okay? Please don't hate me!**

I was partially convinced that Sharpay hated me. I mean, she had completely ignored me all day at school, which, looking back, was probably understandable. But at the moment, all I wanted to do was just be with her, but she didn't want to have anything to do with me. And that stung. I walked home, half hoping that she would be in my room when I got there, even thought I knew that that was a long shot. But when I got home I didn't see Sharpay. I saw Tyler. A very pissed off Tyler.

"What the hell did you say to Sharpay?" He asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I said, maybe too soon.

"No, that isn't suspicious at all." Tyler said sarcastically. "What did you tell Sharpay? I came to see her, and she completely avoided me. It was like she couldn't stand the sight of me."

"Have you ever thought that maybe she just can't stand the sight of you?" I asked.

"Okay Troy I get it, you have a crush on my girlfriend. But this is going way too far. I mean honestly, it's never going to happen. It was kind of funny at first, I mean, I'm sure Sharpay was flattered for some reason. But don't delude yourself into thinking that by sabotaging me, you'll get her to give you a chance." Tyler glared at me. "Now tell me what you said to her."

For some reason this pissed me off. Any other day, I probably would have put up with it, but today I was mad. "I don't think it has too much to do with what I _said_ to her…"

I think it took Tyler a second to catch on. "What are you saying?"

"I'm not saying anything." I smirked, it was weird, but I like have power over my brother. "It's just that the last time I was with Sharpay, she didn't seem to be thinking about you."

"That's really funny, Troy." Tyler said sarcastically.

"Really? Because if I just found out that my girlfriend made out with my little brother, I don't think I would be laughing."

"Shut up." Tyler said, finally showing that I was getting to him.

"What? I thought that the idea of Sharpay choosing me over you was impossible." I taunted him.

Tyler's glare intensified. "I giving you one warning-"

"Until what? What can you really do to me that you haven't already done, Tyler?" In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have asked that.

Tyler walked right up to me and pushed me back. Okay, this wasn't the first time that Tyler had hit me, I mean, we were brothers, but this was full force. I almost fell backwards. "What the hell was that for?"

"She's _my_ girlfriend!" Tyler screamed.

"She was my best friend." I screamed back at him.

"Well that's just pathetic okay? She's my girlfriend and you're my younger brother. That means that she's like, ten times more off limits than she already was. Not to mention out of your league." Tyler snapped at me.

"She didn't seem to think so." I said. Once again, bad move.

Okay, apparently when you make the same stupid move two times in a row, time skips, because that next thing I remembered was trying to keep Tyler from killing me with his bare hands. It wouldn't be even remotely honest to say that I had a chance in this fight. I mean, when we were kids, Tyler was a black belt and I stared in our junior high's production of the Hobbit. So naturally, while Tyler was busy almost murdering me I was just trying to protect my face.

Luckily for me, my father managed to see some of this happening and pulled Tyler off of me. "What the hell is going on with you two?" He asked loudly, turning to Tyler for an answer.

"He's been saying that he messed around with Sharpay!" Tyler pointed at me accusingly.

"Troy?" My dad looked at me. "Is this true?"

I was at a loss for words. "He tried to kill me!"

"But you started it." My dad reasoned.

"No." I shook my head. "He started it. Ever since we were kids he always started it. And just because I'm finally finishing it, he picks now to bring you into this." I said, crossing my arms, completely aware that I sounded like a five year old, but I didn't care.

My dad put his hands up in an extremely sad attempt to calm me down. "Troy, be reasonable-"

"You know, I should have known that you would have taken his side." I said with a shrug, heading away from Tyler and my dad.

"Where do you think you're going?" My father yelled at me.

"Anywhere but here."

**xXxXxXx**

"Hey, can I take your order sir? May I recommend…" She stopped mid-sentence, probably just realizing that it was me.

"Does that free coffee thing still apply?" I asked, hoping that it was a good enough peace offering.

Sharpay looked down. "What are you doing here Troy?"

I ignored her. "Remember? I promised that I wouldn't tell anyone that you worked here, and you promised that I could have free coffee every time I came in? Does that still apply?"

"Sure, whatever Troy. Just get away from me, okay Troy?" She asked.

"Sharpay, something happened between us, an we're going to have to deal with it." I said.

"Nothing happened!" Sharpay met my eyes for a moment, before looking away. "This is my work, Troy. Why do you have to do this now?"

"Because if we don't do this now, we never will." I said, sounding a little bit more desperate than I had intended to.

Sharpay continued to ignore me and fumbled with the apron she was wearing. "Not now, Troy. And if that means not ever, then you'll just have to deal with that."

Sharpay, who was usually the best liar, didn't sound to convincing. I looked past her to the other girl working. "Hey, can you cover for her for the next ten minutes?"

The girl nodded with a smile. "Take a break Shar, I won't tell."

Sharpay's face turned red, but I didn't care. "Looks like we have ten minutes."

Sharpay walked around the counter and followed me to a small table in the corner. She glared at me. "What the hell, Troy?"

"Okay look, I get that you're mad at me, but can we at least be civil?" I asked, giving her a pleading look.

"I'm not mad." She looked down again, I'd never seen her looking so nervous and ashamed. "Well… not at you."

"Because you didn't want to stop." I said, looking her strait in the eye. "Look, I get it, you're with my brother. But things like that don't just come from nowhere."

"You're right." She said, looking up. "Which is why we can't be friends."

"You don't mean that." I snapped.

"Well then what do you want me to say? That I'm happy? Fine Troy! I'm just ecstatic that I may have quite possibly ruined the two best things in my life." Sharpay exploded.

Okay, admittedly, I was psyched that she considered me one of the best things in her life. But of course, the realization that the other thing was Tyler completely put a rain on my parade. "Neither one of us expected this to happen." I said, leaving out the part about me really wanting it to happen.

"It's just… I always imagined Tyler and I being together forever." She said in a hushed, self conscious tone.

"I can imagine being in love with you forever." I said, without thinking.

Sharpay looked at me for a second. And the weirdest part was, she looked like she wanted to smile. Then she just looked angry at herself. "I'm sorry Troy… I can't do this." She said before getting up and running out the door.

**Ah... Troy, how stupid can you be? You don't tell your brother that his girlfriend was all over you, you hope he doesn't find out and pray he doesn't kill you. But, I guess, this is a special case, since he actually may have a chance at a meaningful relationship with Sharpay. Poor Sharpay though, she's obviously conflicted. Sorry for such a short chapter. I hope you guys liked it. Tell me what you think. Bye for now - LL4E**


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